The agreement covers a large number of countries: but in addition to the UK, the Scandinavian countries, the whole of North and South America, Australasia and Japan are missing from the union it creates. Those which are parties to the agreement are largely ‘deposit’ countries, where the authority which registers trademarks does not take responsibility for raising objections (or raises only limited ones) leaving the validity of the registration to be established by litigation. THE PROTOCOL : The protocol to the Madrid Agreement concerning the International Registration of Marks, adopted in Madrid on 27 June 1989, radically alters the prospects of UK trademark owners registering their marks abroad. It is a parallel treaty to the agreement which aims to overcome the problems that the UK and others have with the present system. It comes into force on 1 April

doi:10.4324/9781843142928-127

Chapter

The agreement covers a large number of countries: but in addition to the UK, the Scandinavian countries, the whole of North and South America, Australasia and Japan are missing from the union it creates. Those which are parties to the agreement are largely ‘deposit’ countries, where the authority which registers trademarks does not take responsibility for raising objections (or raises only limited ones) leaving the validity of the registration to be established by litigation. THE PROTOCOL

Chapter

ABSTRACT

The agreement covers a large number of countries: but in addition to the UK, the Scandinavian countries, the whole of North and South America, Australasia and Japan are missing from the union it creates. Those which are parties to the agreement are largely ‘deposit’ countries, where the authority which registers trademarks does not take responsibility for raising objections (or raises only limited ones) leaving the validity of the registration to be established by litigation.