Global Trademarks: Can One Application Protect Your Brand in 130+ Countries?

A U.S. outdoor gear company came to us after a Hong Kong trading company began selling knockoffs under its brand. The company thought it was protected. It held a WIPO international registration designating China and a number of other countries, and it assumed that registration covered its brand everywhere that mattered. It did not cover Hong Kong, because a Madrid designation of China never does, and its China protection left out some of its most important products. We see this misunderstanding regularly, usually after someone else has started using the brand.

That company's mistake grew out of a question our international trademark lawyers hear all the time: can a single application protect a brand in many countries? For many countries, yes. WIPO's Madrid System and regional systems covering the European Union, the Benelux countries, and parts of Africa make that possible. But there is no worldwide trademark. Trademark rights are territorial, and the applicable law in each jurisdiction determines what protection a company receives there, and a company that mistakes a Madrid filing for global protection will not see the gaps until someone exploits one.

Is There Such a Thing as an International Trademark?

No. Madrid gives a company one place to seek protection in many countries, but the resulting rights remain national or regional, determined by each designated country or regional office under its own law. The Madrid System covers more than 130 countries. An eligible trademark owner files one international application in one language, pays fees through one system, and designates the countries and regional systems where it wants protection. A U.S. company that wants protection in China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and the European Union can file one application designating all seven jurisdictions rather than filing separately in each. WIPO forwards each designation to the relevant office, and each office examines the mark under its own law. China can refuse the mark while Japan, the EU, and the rest approve it.

A U.S. company needs a U.S. trademark application or registration to serve as its basic mark before it can file through Madrid. The international application must match that basic mark, and it can narrow the goods and services the U.S. filing covers but never add to them. Since October 1, 2026, U.S. applicants file through WIPO's Madrid e-Filing platform, while the USPTO still certifies that the international application corresponds to the U.S. filing. Companies based in other Madrid members use the same system through their home trademark offices. Once WIPO finds the formalities in order, it records the international registration and issues a certificate. That certificate means WIPO has completed the international registration, and each designated jurisdiction still decides whether the mark is protected there.

What Does Madrid Do Well?

For a company that needs protection in many participating countries, Madrid often saves real time and money. Renewals, ownership changes, and address changes run through one system, the registration renews every ten years, and new countries can be added later through a subsequent designation as the business grows. The savings are largest at filing and smallest at refusal. A provisional refusal must be answered under local law, usually through local counsel, and that can erase much of the savings from filing centrally.

What Is Madrid's Five-Year Dependency Rule?

For five years from the international registration date, the international registration depends on the basic mark. If the U.S. basic application or registration ceases to have effect during that period, through refusal, withdrawal, cancellation, or otherwise, the international registration is canceled to the same extent in every designated jurisdiction. An attack on the basic mark that produces that result is called a central attack. Transformation can preserve the international registration date, but the owner must then pursue and pay for separate national or regional applications.

The USPTO recommends that companies relying on a pending U.S. application wait for the first office action before filing internationally. But waiting has a cost. To claim the U.S. filing date as its priority date, the Madrid application must be filed within six months. If the first USPTO office action arrives after that window closes, waiting means giving up the earlier priority date, and in a first-to-file country like China, a lost priority date can mean a lost mark. We weigh those risks matter by matter. A registered basic mark cannot fail in prosecution, though it can still be canceled during the five-year period.

Which Regional Trademark Systems Cover Multiple Countries?

A single European Union trade mark covers all 27 EU member states, and a company can file directly with the EUIPO or designate the EU through Madrid. Unlike a Madrid registration, an EU trademark is one right, and that cuts both ways. An earlier trademark right in a single EU country can be enough to defeat an EU-wide application. When the problem exists only in certain countries, conversion can preserve national applications in the others.

OAPI, the African Intellectual Property Organization, runs a single trademark system for 17 countries, mostly in West and Central Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. One OAPI registration covers all 17 countries. There is no parallel national trademark system in the member states. OAPI also belongs to Madrid, so a single designation can reach all of them.

ARIPO, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, works differently. Under the Banjul Protocol, an applicant can use one application to designate any of its 13 participating countries, and each designated country examines the mark under its national law and can refuse it while the others grant it. That makes ARIPO closer in structure to Madrid than to OAPI or the EU. Unlike OAPI, ARIPO itself cannot be designated through Madrid.

Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg share one trademark system administered by the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property, which can also be designated through Madrid. Because all three countries are also EU members, many companies choose an EU trademark instead. A separate Benelux filing can still make sense when the business or portfolio strategy is concentrated there.

Many trade blocs have no regional trademark at all. ASEAN offers no single registration for Southeast Asia, so a company that wants protection in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines needs rights in each, though Madrid simplifies filing in most of them. A common market or customs union does not create a common trademark.

Which Countries Does Madrid Not Reach?

Madrid still leaves out several important markets. Taiwan cannot join because it is not a WIPO member. Hong Kong and Macao run their own trademark systems, and a China designation covers neither, which matters to companies that sell in Hong Kong or otherwise need trademark protection there. Madrid covers only part of Latin America and the Caribbean, so Argentina, Peru, and most of Central America require direct filings, and South Africa remains outside the system as well. Madrid membership changes, so check WIPO's current member list before assuming a country is covered.

Should a Company Use Madrid or File Directly in China?

China participates in Madrid, but for companies that rely on China as a manufacturing or sales market, we almost always prefer a direct China filing, and the reasons start with classification. China uses the international Nice classes but divides many of them into subclasses, and the subclasses determine the practical scope of protection. A Madrid designation carries over the goods description from the basic filing. CNIPA then applies China's classification rules, and a description drafted for the USPTO does not necessarily cover all the Chinese subclasses the business needs.

A U.S. kitchenware company designated China through Madrid using the goods description from its U.S. application. CNIPA protected the mark in the subclass covering its cookware and nowhere else in the class. A Chinese company then registered the identical mark for other kitchen goods that China places in neighboring subclasses. Both registrations stand, and our client cannot use its own brand on those products in China without buying the mark back or winning an invalidation action. A direct China filing drafted around Chinese subclasses would have covered all of it from the start.

Language is the second reason. Companies selling to Chinese consumers should decide early whether to register a Chinese-character version of their brand, preferably before consumers or distributors choose a Chinese name for them. Companies that manufacture in China solely for export often have less reason to register a Chinese-language mark. A Madrid application based on an English-language U.S. mark cannot be used to register a different Chinese-character mark, so that mark generally requires a separate filing.

Timing and enforcement are the third. A straightforward direct China application currently takes about seven months from filing to registration. Under Madrid, China has 18 months to issue a provisional refusal, and a refusal based on an opposition can come later still. A direct China filing also produces a CNIPA registration certificate. A Madrid holder that needs one must request it separately, which adds a step when the company needs to enforce quickly.

China is a first-to-file country, subject to limited exceptions, and waiting gives someone else more time to register the brand first. We recommend filing the China trademark before revealing the brand to manufacturers, sourcing agents, distributors, or other China-side parties. For manufacturers, that often coincides with putting a China NNN Agreement in place before disclosure. Whichever route a company chooses, filing early matters more than choosing the theoretically neatest route.

How Should a Company Build an International Trademark Portfolio?

Madrid deserves serious consideration whenever a company expects to protect its brand in several participating countries, and its advantages grow with the portfolio. Direct national filings make more sense where one country matters especially, where local classification practice demands careful drafting, where the company needs a local-language mark, or where enforcement concerns justify a separate strategy. Nothing requires a company to use the same filing route everywhere. A company can, for example, file directly in China, obtain an EU trademark, and use Madrid for markets such as the UK, Japan, South Korea, and Australia.

Our outdoor gear client did nothing unusual in using Madrid. Its mistake was assuming Madrid had answered the country-by-country questions for it. Start with where you manufacture, sell, distribute, and license, and where counterfeiting or trademark squatting is a real risk. Then decide what rights you need in each place and which route gets you there. Madrid and the regional systems have made international filing far easier than it once was, but trademark rights remain territorial, and the goal has not changed: secure the trademark protection the business actually needs in the markets where losing control of the brand would hurt.