India would join the World Intellectual Property Organization's Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks this year. This would enable the owner of a registered trademark to protect his brand in the member countries.
"There is a big process to join the Madrid System and India would come [on board] in 2010," WIPO Director General Francis Gurry said. He said more countries from South America, particularly Colombia, Mexico and Brazil are expected to join the trade mark protection system.
Though India has been holding consultations with WIPO for several years about joining the Madrid System, the government was unable to take a final call till now, analysts said.
Infringement of trademarks is a huge problem in some of the Asian countries, especially China, Vietnam, and India, where pirated goods with well-known global marks are easily available at a fraction of the actual price.
China ranked first among countries most designated for trademark protection last year. Close to 15,000 trademark owners chose China for designation of their marks, followed by the Russian Federation, the United States, Switzerland, and the European Union.
The members of the Madrid Union notified 303,344 new designations (contained in new registrations or extension in other countries) last year, a drop of 20 per cent compared to 2008. In submitting a trademark application, an applicant has to indicate where the goods or services are designated for protection.
The global economic downturn has had an adverse impact on trade mark filings last year, said Gurry. "International trademark filings took a hit in 2009," he said, "this is not surprising given the difficult financial conditions and restrained consumer demand facing countries around the world."
Last year, the number of applications for international trademark filings dropped by 16 per cent, from 42,075 in 2008 to 35,195 last year, a development vindicating that companies are more cautious about bringing new products to markets when there is considerable economic uncertainty.
