WIPO Singapore Office Joins Regional Workshop for Officials Responsible for the Madrid System

The WIPO Singapore Office (WSO) was pleased to contribute to the regional online workshop for IP office officials in Asia-Pacific who have responsibility for administering the Madrid System in their country. The workshop, organized by WIPO and delivered in cooperation with the Japan Patent Office, covered a wide range of topics from operational considerations to IT systems, communication between offices and promotion initiatives.

The WSO delivered a presentation on effective strategies to develop and execute a Madrid System promotional strategy. The presentation from the WSO Officer-in-charge, Mr. Peter Willimott, highlighted the “Madrid Flyers” initiative that has been conceptualized and implemented across ASEAN and is now being used by WIPO all over the world.

The Madrid Flyers initiative involves the WSO partnering with each IP office to co-produce a flyer that explains the benefits of using the Madrid System to obtain trademark protection around the world. The flyers are co-branded with the local IP office and are in local language to ensure SMEs can access the key pieces of information. The flyers have been developed to be distributed to local recipients of trademark registrations – this is a good time to communicate with such an audience as they have a newly registered trademark but may not be aware that their rights only extend to the country in which they received the registration.

To date the Flyers initiative has achieved a number of objectives, including raising the number of visitors from ASEAN Member States to the Madrid webpages on the WIPO website.

The Workshop saw 17 IP offices represented with almost 80 participants joining the sessions that were spread over a number of days.

More details of the workshop are available here.