The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presents his compliments to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and has the honor to notify him that the Assembly of the Special Union for the International Registration of Marks (Madrid Union), having adopted, on January 18, 1996, at its twenty-seventh session (16th extraordinary), the Common Regulations under the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and the Protocol Relating to that Agreement and also having adopted the Schedule of Fees as an annex to, and part of, the said Common Regulations, fixed, as the date of entry into force of the said Common Regulations and as the date on which the said Schedule of Fees would take effect,
April 1, 1996,
that date being also the date of entry into operation of the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, adopted at Madrid on June 27, 1989 ("Madrid Protocol (1989)").
In this connection, it is recalled that the Governments of the following States have deposited instruments of ratification of, or accession to, the Madrid Protocol (1989): the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba, the Kingdom of Denmark (which, in addition, declared that until later decision, the Madrid Protocol (1989) will not be applied to the Faroe Islands or to Greenland), the Republic of Finland, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (in respect of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man).
In addition, the Governments of the following States, in their respective instruments of ratification or accession, made the following declarations provided for in the Madrid Protocol (1989):
- the Governments of the People's Republic of China, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Republic of Finland, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland each declared, in accordance with Article 5(2)(d) of the Madrid Protocol (1989), that, under Article 5(2)(b) of the said Protocol, the time limit of one year to exercise the right to notify a refusal of protection referred to in Article 5(2)(a) thereof, is replaced by 18 months and that, under Article 5(2)(c) of the said Protocol, where refusal of protection may result from an opposition to the granting of protection, such refusal may be notified after the expiry of the 18-month time limit;
- the Governments of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Republic of Finland, the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland each declared, in accordance with Article 8(7)(a) of the Madrid Protocol (1989), that, in connection with each international registration in which it is mentioned under Article 3ter of the said Protocol, and in connection with each renewal of any such international registration, it wants to receive, instead of a share in the revenue produced by the supplementary and complementary fee, an individual fee;
- the Government of the People's Republic of China declared, in accordance with Article 14(5) of the Madrid Protocol (1989), that the protection resulting from any international registration effected under the said Protocol before the date of entry into force of the said Protocol with respect to the People's Republic of China cannot be extended to it.
February 1, 1996