Cheaper international registration of Trademarks | Colombia
August 5th, 2012 by Danny G. Pérez y Soto - B&R Research
Savings in professional and official fees.
On August the 1st, the World Intellectual Property Organization –WIPO- announced the official fees for international registrations under the Madrid Protocol where Colombia is designated. The Protocol will enter into force on August 29th 2012, making Colombia the first country in South America to allow the Protocol’s international trademark registrations.
The Madrid Protocol, as explained in previous posts, allows for the express registration of trademarks in several countries around the world, with a single international application and a single payment for official fees. This is obviously an enormous step forward from having to file multiple applications with special procedures in each country. The Madrid Protocol is part of the Madrid System, and it’s managed by the WIPO.
Official Fees under the Madrid Protocol
The WIPO has created 4 different fees for procedures under the Madrid Protocol, they are all in Swiss Francs (CHF), and will have to be paid in that currency.
Basically, when approving the Madrid Protocol each country has to choose between getting a share of the standard fees of WIPO –Complementary fees– or setting their own Individual Fees.
The four official fees for 10-years international protection of the trademark, according to Article 8 of the Protocol are:
- WIPO’s Official Fees
In all procedures, the following two fees apply:
| Payable: | Not payable/reduced: | Amount in CHF: | |
| The Basic Fee | Payable in all international applications. Increases when the TM includes colors. | Is reduced to as little as 65CHF when country of origin is a Least Developed Country –LDC– according to the UN. | Application, no color:
653CHF Application, colored: 903CHF LDC Country, no color: 65CHF LDC Country, colored: 90CHF Renewal: 653CHF |
| Supplementary Fees | Payable per additional class when application includes more than 3 classes from the Nice Classification. | Not payable when only Contracting Parties with Individual Fees are designated. | 100CHF per additional class. |
- Official fees for designated countries.
Depending on whether the country has established individual fees or not, one of these two fees applies:
| Complementary Fees | Payable per designated country. | Not payable when the designated country has established Individual Fees. | 100 CHF per designated country. |
Or:
| Individual Fees | Payable in respect to each designated country that established Individual Fees (instead of Complementary Fees) | Not payable when both the Country of Origin of the application and the designated country belong to the Madrid Agreement. Complementary Fees apply for this case. | Click here to see the full Schedule of Fees for countries with Individual Fees. |
For procedures different than Registration Applications and Renewals, the full schedule of charges can be found here.
Fees for procedures related to Colombia.
This is a brief explanation of how will official fees work under the Madrid Protocol in Colombia. International Applicants applying for international registration that includes Colombia as a designated country the official and professional fees to pay would be:
| Official Fees of the Colombian PTO for national application for registration of the trademark. (The base application on which the international application is supported) |
| The Basic Fee for International Registration. |
| Supplementary Fees (If more than 3 classes). |
| The Individual fee for Colombia:
384 CHF for one class of goods or services 757 CHF for two classes of goods and services 1119 CHF for three classes of goods and services 1470 CHF for four classes of goods and services 1809 CHF for five classes of goods and services 2137 CHF for six classes of goods and services 2453 CHF for seven classes of goods and services 2759 CHF for eight classes of goods and services 3053 CHF for nine classes of goods and services 3336 CHF for 10 classes of goods and services For more than 10 classes, click here. |
| Professional Fees for national application. |
| Professional Fees for international application. |
Useful Tools.
WIPO has created a Fee Calculator, which allows the user to create estimates of Official Fees for registration in each country. It takes Individual Fees and reduced fees into account, so it’s a great tool to get an idea of the cost for international registration (without professional fees, of course). You may find the fee calculator here.
