Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) has opened Phase II of its priority trademark examination programme, significantly widening the situations in which applicants may request faster handling. The new categories include Brazilian basic applications linked to Madrid System international registrations where INPI acts as the office of origin, applicants that need trademark registration to operate on online marketplaces, traditional communities and family farming applicants, applicants domiciled in countries with reciprocal arrangements with Brazil, and cases where...

On 3 July 2026, South Korea’s Ministry of Intellectual Property (MOIP) announced amendments to the Enforcement Rules of the Trademark Act, effective from 17 June. For international trademark registrations designating South Korea under the Madrid System, the exemption from filing a separate representative notification has been broadened. Previously, the exemption applied when the first filing was a request to extend a designated period; it now also covers cases where the first filing is a request to extend a statutory period.The change is modest, but practical. It should reduce avoidable...

In its opening statement to the 68th WIPO Assemblies on 8 July 2026, the United States placed the modernisation of global filing systems high on the agenda. It urged WIPO members to remove outdated requirements in the Madrid System that limit its usefulness for trademark owners, and argued that resources generated through the PCT should be reinvested in the system, including a unified dashboard and portal for managing global intellectual property portfolios with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises. These were policy proposals from one member state, not adopted WIPO...

CNIPA’s Trademark Office issued a notice dated June 4, 2026, effective June 5, changing how certain documents are served in three-year non-use cancellation proceedings involving Madrid international registrations designating China. The notice covers the request to submit evidence of use or explain justified non-use, as well as decisions and closure notices issued after a holder fails to respond in time; instead of sending those documents directly to the holder by paper mail, CNIPA will have WIPO’s International Bureau forward them electronically.This is more than an administrative...

Cape Verde’s new Industrial Property Code is now in force, and the significance of that change is becoming clearer as post-entry commentary gathers pace in June 2026. This is not a routine legislative refresh. It materially widens what can be protected, removes a procedural burden that had long frustrated trade mark applicants, and gives cross-border rights holders a more usable framework for integrating Cape Verde into regional and international filing plans.The headline shifts are easy to list but harder to price correctly. Non-traditional trade marks such as multimedia, motion and...

WIPO’s Madrid Registry says its Automated Correction System for irregularities, or MACS, has now gone live after technical integration with core European offices. Common formal defects, including loose goods and services wording and format conflicts, are expected to be identified earlier and blocked in real time. On one level, this is a speed story: if fewer routine defects travel downstream, average registration timelines may improve materially.But that is not the part applicants should focus on first. Once automated checks move to the front end, much less room remains for broad...

Argentina’s debate over international filing systems has moved back into the foreground. The U.S.–Argentina reciprocal trade and investment agreement set a 2026 congressional timetable for the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and placed the Madrid Protocol and the Hague Agreement on the list of treaties to be sent to Congress before the end of 2027. At the same time, a recent committee document in the Chamber of Deputies shows that PCT is no longer just a dormant legacy bill; it is back inside an active policy discussion, with pro-accession arguments also pointing to the practical value of...

As the 2026 WIPO-EUIPO IP Management Clinic for green and sustainability-focused SMEs approaches its 10 June application deadline, a clearer support map is emerging for green-tech companies in the EU, EFTA countries and Ukraine. WIPO says the program will help selected businesses work on IP identification, protection, commercialization and international growth, while the EUIPO’s 2026 SME Fund continues to show where the filing tools sit in practice: 75% reimbursement for EU-level and national or regional trade mark and design fees, and 50% reimbursement for basic application, designation...

After months of systems integration, WIPO says Madrid eFiling now includes a “smart designation and refusal warning” support module for key ASEAN designations, with market attention centering on Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. When applicants select those territories, the tool is designed to pull from the latest examination databases of the relevant IP Offices and return a real-time risk rating for issues that may trigger absolute-ground objections, such as terms that lack distinctiveness in the local language, expressions with potentially adverse connotations, or wording that sits...

Effective January 1, 2026, the 13th edition of the Nice Classification (NCL 13-2026) introduced a set of changes that go well beyond editorial cleanup. Several commonly used goods were reclassified into new classes: spectacles, contact lenses and sunglasses moved to Class 10; electric toothbrushes moved to Class 21; heated clothing moved to Class 25; emergency and rescue vehicles moved to Class 12. Class 42 also added new terminology including “Artificial intelligence as a service (AIaaS).” For businesses preparing new trademark filings, international extensions, renewals or portfolio...

During the INTA Annual Meeting held from 2 to 6 May, WIPO presented a new digital management environment, with eMadrid placed at the centre of a more guided filing experience. The upgraded environment is expected to support smarter classification suggestions and automated risk searches, giving applicants an earlier warning when goods and services descriptions may trigger provisional refusals in designated Madrid members.The practical message is plain: a cleaner filing record is becoming part of the applicant’s own responsibility, not just an issue for later examination. Companies using the...

In early May, WIPO renewed its warning to users of the PCT and Madrid systems after a wave of fraudulent emails sought payment of unofficial fees. The messages often imitate official wording, use misleading sender details, and claim that the recipient’s protection status has been compromised. Some appear to invoke the names of WIPO, the EPO, the EUIPO or national offices in the Americas, creating the impression that an urgent payment is needed to preserve an application, registration or renewal.The practical risk is straightforward: these emails target the moments when applicants are...

The Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) has reminded users that payments for patents, utility models and industrial designs must now be handled through the government’s e-Citizen platform. On the same public notice page, KIPI has also shared the draft Geographical Indications Bill 2026 and related public participation materials, placing a procedural payment change alongside a more substantive reform of origin-linked names.The draft is significant because it seeks to give geographical indications a clearer domestic footing while reducing friction with trademark practice, including...

Zambia’s Trade Marks Act No. 11 of 2023 moved into full operation at the end of December 2025 following Statutory Instrument No. 86 of 2025, displacing the 1958 regime that had long shaped filings and enforcement. For brand owners, the bigger story is not simply that a new law is now in force, but that Zambia’s trade mark system is being recast in a language far more familiar to modern cross-border practice.Service marks, well-known marks, geographical indications, Madrid-related provisions, electronic service, multi-class filing and division now sit within the same statutory...

WIPO has notified that Qatar deposited its instrument of accession to the Nice Agreement on November 10, 2025, and that the Agreement entered into force for Qatar on February 10, 2026. For brand owners and filing teams, this is more than a treaty-status update. It means the classification logic surrounding trade mark applications and registration records in Qatar now sits more clearly inside the internationally used Nice Classification framework.The practical significance is not limited to class numbers appearing on official documents. The bigger shift is that specification drafting,...

On March 26, 2026, WIPO launched a targeted consultation for international trademark registration holders and representatives on a question that goes well beyond procedural fine-tuning: should the Offices of designated Madrid System members be required to issue a national or regional certificate when protection is granted, and again when an international registration is renewed? The survey is anonymous, takes no more than 10 minutes to complete, closes on April 24, 2026, and WIPO has expressly stated that the responses will directly inform discussions at the next session of the Working...

In March 2026, WIPO’s Madrid System Information Notices page turned into an unusually dense stream of individual-fee updates. On March 12 alone, WIPO listed 17 notices changing individual fees, including several markets that sit near the top of many international trademark filing plans for cross-border businesses, such as China, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and Indonesia. The United Kingdom had already issued its own notice on January 26, with the revised fees taking effect on April 1. For brand owners using the Madrid System for centralized filings, subsequent...

As Kazakhstan’s package of intellectual property amendments, signed in November 2025 and brought into implementation from January 2026, begins to take practical effect, one of the most consequential changes for brand owners has moved from policy headline to usable procedure: within a trademark system where ordinary examination still typically takes around seven months, the accelerated route compresses the full review cycle to roughly three months. For businesses assessing how and when to enter Central Asia, that is not merely an administrative improvement. It changes the sequencing of...

On March 12, 2026, WIPO issued Information Notices MADRID/2026/7, MADRID/2026/9 and MADRID/2026/13, confirming that the individual fees under the Madrid System will be reduced for Australia, China and Japan as from April 12, 2026. For applications and subsequent designations, Australia will fall from 232 to 217 Swiss francs per class; China from 249 to 220 Swiss francs for one class and from 125 to 110 for each additional class; and Japan from 266 to 221 Swiss francs for one class and from 250 to 208 for each additional class. Renewal fees are also reduced for China and Japan, and for...

The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization has announced an Accelerated Examination Track under the Harare Protocol for selected patent applications. The route covers PCT applications entering the ARIPO regional phase and direct patent filings where the invention relates to public health, agricultural technology or clean energy. For eligible cases, the stated examination target is 12 to 18 months.The measure is a practical signal that ARIPO wants scarce examination capacity to move faster where regional development needs are more visible. Applicants should not treat...