Just Another Option: Foreign Trademark Protection Following U.S. Membership In The Madrid Protocol

With the Madrid Protocol’s becoming effective in the United States as of this month, American trademark owners are presented with another alternative when seeking to protect their marks internationally. However, filing under the treaty should not be viewed as the final word on international registration. So far, it is still unclear what the advantages to filing under the protocol are exactly and, thus, the treaty should not be seen as superseding traditional methods of protecting trademarks overseas.