Registration of trademarks abroad

Today, if anyone wants to register a trademark in another country, he has several options through which his trademark protection can be obtained:

  • national registration - filing a separate application for registration with the national patent office in each of the countries in which protection is sought (local patent attorney representation will be needed);  
  • regional registration – such as European Union trademarks, ARIPO trademarks, OAPI trademarks (local patent attorney representation will be needed);   
  • international registration under the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks (in some situations local patent attorney representation will be needed).

Patent attorneys of LEXPATENT will advise you, with due consideration of the purposes and territories of a trademark registration, on how you can optimally obtain rights to the trademark, and through our close cooperation with leading patent attorneys representing various countries, including Russia, Germany, France, United Kingdom, USA, China, Japan, countries of Africa and many other countries, we may most competently represent the interests of applicants abroad.

ARIPO stands for African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation, which covers mostly English-speaking African countries. There are currently 22 states  which are members of ARIPO. They are: Botswana, Cape Verde, Eswatini, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sãn Tomé and Principe, Seichelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe. More detailed information about this regional organization can be found at: www.aripo.org.

OAPI stands for Organisation Africaine de la Propriete Intellectuelle, which covers French-speaking African countries. The OAPI’s members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Comoro Islands, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo, The Central African Republic. These countries belong to the OAPI regional trademark registration system. It is not possible to obtain national registrations in these countries. Applications for registration of trademarks may be filed through the ARIPO Office (located in Harare, Zimbabwe), or through the Office of one of the OAPI countries. More detailed information about this regional system can be found at: www.oapi.int.