When registering a trademark, you need to choose the countries in which it should be valid. In other words, one of the key questions in protecting a brand or logo is deciding how many countries it should be protected in.
The most popular choices for trademark protection are: – a Slovak trademark, – an EU trademark, – an international trademark, – a US trademark, – individual countries where the company intends to operate or to offer and sell its services or goods.
Trademark applicants do not usually choose China and other countries where intellectual property rights in a trademark are difficult to enforce, because weak enforcement makes protection in those countries financially unviable.
The international trademark is also a popular option. The advantage of an international application is that you can apply in several countries at once; the disadvantage is that, in addition to the fees for the international trademark, you must also pay the fees for each national trademark.
Nice Agreement countries
List of countries in which an international trademark can be filed:
Albania (D/P) Algeria (D) Antigua and Barbuda (P) Armenia (D/P) Australia (P) Azerbaijan (D/P) Belgium* (D/P) Belarus (D/P) Bosnia and Herzegovina (D/P) Bulgaria (D/P) Bhutan (D/P)
Iran (D/P) Ireland (P) Iceland (P) Israel (P) Japan (P) Kazakhstan (D/P) Kenya (D/P) Kyrgyzstan (D/P) Republic of Korea (P) Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (D/P) Cuba (D/P) Lesotho (D/P) Liberia (D/P) Liechtenstein (D/P) Republic of Lithuania (P) Latvia (D/P) Luxembourg* (D/P)
Macedonia (D/P) Madagascar (P) Hungary (D/P) Morocco (D/P) Moldova (D/P) Monaco (D/P) Mongolia (D/P) Mozambique (D/P) Germany (D/P) Norway (P) Oman (P) Poland (D/P) Portugal (D/P) Austria (D/P) Romania (D/P) Russian Federation (D/P)
San Marino (D/P) Sierra Leone (D/P) Singapore (P) Slovakia (D/P) Slovenia (D/P) United Kingdom (P) United States of America (P) Serbia (D/P) Sudan (D/P) Swaziland (D/P) São Tomé and Príncipe (P) Syria (D/P) Spain (D/P) Switzerland (D/P) Sweden (P) Tajikistan (D/P) Italy (D/P) Turkey (P) Turkmenistan (P) Ukraine (D/P) Uzbekistan (P) Vietnam (D/P) Zambia (P)
(D) – a party to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks but not to the Protocol (1 country); where such a country is designated, the international application can be filed with the International Bureau only after the national trademark has been registered (P) – a party to the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (84) (D/ P) – a party to both the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and its Protocol (85 contracting parties) The Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) are treated as a single contracting party.