The Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, referred to as the Madrid Agreement, was signed in 1891 and is an international treaty used to stipulate and regulate international trademark registration. There are currently more than 100 member countries and organizations in the Madrid system. Through this system, as long as an international registration that is valid in each designated contracting party is obtained, the trademark can be protected in a large number of countries.

The Madrid International Trademark Registration is a trademark registration conducted among the member countries of the Madrid Union in accordance with the provisions of the Madrid Agreement or the Madrid Protocol. The international trademark registration commonly referred to refers to the Madrid International Trademark Registration. The “Madrid Union” refers to the Special Union for the International Registration of Trademarks composed of countries or intergovernmental organizations to which the Madrid Agreement and the Madrid Protocol apply.

The Madrid System for the International Registration of Trademarks is subject to the following two treaties.

The Madrid Agreement was signed in 1891 and revised in Brussels (1900), Washington (1911), The Hague (1925), London (1934), Nice (1957) and Stockholm (1967), and was amended in 1979.

The Madrid Protocol was signed in 1989 to make the Madrid System more flexible and more compatible with the national laws of certain countries or intergovernmental organizations that are not yet able to accede to the Agreement.