Brunei is a Southeast Asian country located on the island of Borneo. Its GDP is among the highest in the world.
With Brunei’s accession on December 6, 2016 to the international trademark system, the Madrid System now has 98 members.
Brunei thus becomes the 6th member country, out of a total of 11 South-East Asian countries (ASEAN), to join the Madrid System.
Broad geographic coverage
Since January 6, 2017, the effective date of entry into force of the Madrid Protocol in Brunei, national trademark owners will be able to protect their trademarks in the 114 territories of the 98 members of the Madrid System.
In addition, foreign trademark owners can expand the protection of their trademark to the Southeast Asian market and more specifically to that of Brunei.
A convenient and cost-effective system
The main advantage of the Madrid System, is the simplification of the filing and management procedures of international trademark registration.
Following a simple application for trademark registration, or a trademark registration with a national or regional intellectual property office, one can apply for a single international registration with the same office, which will then arrange for submission of the application to the WIPO.
Filing an international application is therefore equivalent to filing multiple national applications, thus effectively saving time and money.
International registration as most national registrations is valid for 10 years.
Future accession of Thailand
Thailand should be the next ASEAN member state to become party to the Madrid System.
Only Indonesia, Malaysia and Burma as well as East Timor will then be left to obtain their accession to the Madrid Protocol so that all ASEAN countries become part of the international trademark system.