"The company was founded just over 30 years ago … We started to bottle different types of rum and “old” rum, as well as a wide variety of liqueurs.

It’s because of what grows locally that Dzama rum is different …. There are plantations of ylang ylang, a plant used in the making of perfume, and vanilla and cloves are also cultivated. It’s the mixture of these fragrances and flavors that gives a unique aroma to Dzama rum.

Our product range is constantly expanding. We’ve done an enormous amount of work on the quality of our products to develop the attractive Dzama brand.

It was a natural step to turn to the Malagasy Industrial Property Office (OMAPI) to protect our marks on the international market.

The Madrid system has made our task much easier. From Madagascar, we’ve been able to protect our mark on the United States market and in Europe, on the basis of the same international registration made through the Madrid system.

Next it will be Asia, especially China, and I’m sure India will soon follow.

The advantage of the Madrid system is that it’s constantly evolving and the number of member countries is increasing. That will create further openings for us on the international market.

For a developing country, the Madrid system is an extraordinary tool for protecting marks at international level, above all because it’s very simple, very effective and very affordable.

We get a substantial discount of 90 per cent on registration costs. This will also allow much smaller entities, whose resources may be much more limited, to be protected at international level.

Thanks to the fee calculator, we knew exactly how much the registration of a mark was going to cost and it also helped in our choice of countries and of the marks that we were going to register.

Another advantage of the Madrid system is that it’s possible to pay fees in a single currency. There’s no need to bother about the currencies of the different countries with which we want to work.

Quality is a key word in the way we operate. What we’ve found in the Madrid system is a reliable, high-quality partnership.

The Madrid system is now an integral part of our development strategy.

We encourage and recommend any company looking at the international market to use the Madrid system to register its marks."