The global environment is filled with tension. The world is tense. There’s a war in Ukraine. Superpowers are at loggerheads. Conflicts continue in Africa, the Middle East and Africa. And there’s a persistent concern about nuclear proliferation.
However, international business continues (despite what the media might suggest). Unscrupulous entrepreneurs could try to exploit these tensions in order to sell counterfeits and imitate branded products without fear of repercussions.
International commerce is not exempt from intellectual property rights. It is particularly true of trademarks. Trademarks are protected by national law. Trademark rights are national. If a brand owner wishes to protect their brand in a particular country, they must establish trademark rights in that country.
How do trademark rights survive in the face of strained relations between countries? How can trademark rights be obtained and enforced in order to protect brands across the world?
Treaties are the short answer. Even in turbulent times, such treaties are usually respected. Trademarks are important because international business is still going on and buyers want to know that they’re buying authentic products, not counterfeits.
The Paris Convention
The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, 1883 is one of the oldest intellectual property treaties. This treaty has an important feature: each member state must offer foreign trademark owners the exact same protection as their own citizens. A country cannot give their nationals an advantage over other countries. The Paris Convention establishes also a link between a first filed trademark application and subsequent trademark applications for the exact same mark if they are filed within 6 months of the original application. (The filing date of the initial application becomes the effective filing for these later-filed requests. The Paris Convention gives trademark owners time to assess the size of the international market, decide where to register their trademarks (which countries), and marshal resources.
Madrid Agreements
The Madrid Agreement Concerning International Registration of Marks of 1891 and the Madrid Protocol of 1989 simplify international trademark registration. The Madrid Protocol allows trademark owners to submit a single application to the World Intellectual Property Organization to obtain protection in several countries.
Nice Agreement
The Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the purposes of the Registration of Trademarks (1957), also known as the Nice Agreement, provides a standard classification system for both goods and services for the purpose of trademark registration. The trademark registration must specify the goods and services that are protected by the brand. Prior to this treaty, and even some time afterward, many countries used their own classification system of goods and services. This made international brand protection and enforcement very difficult.
Trademark Law Treaty
The Trademark Law Treaty of 1994, or TLT, establishes minimal requirements and standardizes some aspects of trademark registration and application processes. These include the filing date of trademark applications and their content. A trademark registration application must include at least the name and address of the applicant, a representation of the mark, and a listing of the goods and services that will be covered by the trademark. The TLT encourages the use the Nice Agreement classification system and the timely communication of requests and refusals. TLT encourages electronic communication between trademark offices and applicants, as well as online filing.
The Trips Agreement
The Trips Agreement (formally known as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, 1994) sets minimum standards for trademark enforcement and protection. It ensures that countries have effective systems in place to protect brands.
There are also other trademark-related treaties. These are all multilateral agreements (where many countries have signed). Most of these agreements aim to harmonize international trademark laws.
The article IP treaties: Globetrotting Business Brand Protections first appeared on Attorney at Law Magazine.