Government to implement the Madrid Protocol soon
• The International Trademark System
The Exporters of Sri Lanka have requested the accession to the Madrid Protocol to secure their trademarks, and the government has already made a budgetary provision of Rs. 100 million for the project implementation.
Proposals:
Accordingly the cabinet approval is sought to;
• Obtain the services of a service provider to outsorce the project
• To call for quotations from suitably qualified institutions.
OSL Take:
The Madrid System:
The Madrid System is a one stop solution for registering and managing marks worldwide.
• File one application, in one language, and pay one set of fees to protect your mark in the territories of up to 97 members.
• Manage your portfolio of marks through one centralized system.
Benefits of the Madrid System:
• Exporting businesses, small and large, need a reliable, convenient and cost-effective mechanism to protect trademarks in markets of interest.
• The Madrid System is the one-stop solution for trademark holders to obtain and maintain protection in multiple markets.
The primary reason of the protocol—which has been in operation since 1996 and has 97 members is more popular than the agreement which has been in operation for more than 110 years and has 55 members is that the protocol introduced a “number of changes” to the Madrid system which significantly enhanced its usefulness to trademark owners.
For example, under the protocol it is possible to obtain an international registration based on a pending trade mark application, so that a trade mark owner can effectively apply for international registration concurrently, or immediately after, filing an application in a member jurisdiction.
By comparison, the agreement requires that the trade mark owner already holds an existing registration in a member jurisdiction, which may often take many months and sometimes years to obtain in the first place.
In addition, the agreement does not provide the option to ‘convert’ international registrations which have been ‘centrally attacked.’
Sri Lanka is fast adopting international business practices to move along with the rest of the fast-paced industrialised countries and aslo to make our locally developed trademarks find international markets easily.
Example:
Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL) is one of the fastest growing and largest conglomerates in Sri Lanka that manufactures and markets many leading brands in biscuits, confectionery, cereal, organic fruit products and many other categories globally.
CBL exports reach over 45 countries across all continents and over 9,000 metric tons of our food products are consumed annually around the world.
The above example shows the potential of Sri Lanka as a manufacturing nation capable of winning global markets, and OSL wants overseas investors to come and set up operations in the “industrial cities” within the Western Region Megapolis Masterplan (WRMM) with our strong links and local business matchmaking expertise.
Call the biz-friendly OSL Team today to get a country overview and the way to move forward in Sri Lanka.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/01-08-2016/Z-2 |