This time it was at Akademi Harta Intellect of Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO).
Our partner, Khaw Veon Szu attended the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO)’s special course for Trademark Agents on 28-06-2022.
This time, the course focused on the Madrid System for the international registration of marks or the Madrid Protocol, which is timely and most apt.
What is Madrid Protocol? In short, the Madrid Protocol system allows the international registration of trademarks through one application that can cover more than one country. Having a single registration to cover a wide range of countries has advantages in terms of portfolio management and cost savings, as opposed to the traditional way of independent national registrations.
Thus, in that sense, this MyIPO refresher course provided an excellent platform for Trademark Agents and MyIPo to assess the implementation of the Madrid Protocol, which was first introduced in Malaysia on 27-12-2019. Based on the figures given by Myipo, up to June this year, only about 40 applications have been filed by Malaysian applicants under the Madrid Protocol. The possible reasons for the low number of applications are the cost factor, currency fluctuation, and lack of publicity about the Madrid Protocol.
We, at Veon Szu & Kok Thye (George Town), are happy to be the Trademark Agent for one of the 40 applicants under the Madrid Protocol. We are helping our client to file one international trademark application to cover 10 member countries.
Needless to say, the learning curve has been steep, as the Madrid Protocol is pretty new here. But a big thank you to the officers of MyIPO; they have been extremely patient and helpful in guiding us through this process step-by-step!
We sincerely hope that more Malaysian companies make good use of the Madrid Protocol in exporting their products and services to the global markets.
Our firm is more that willing to work together with Malaysian companies in this exciting journey!
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活到老學到老.讚.