Madrid Protocol
What Madrid Protocol means, where you will meet it and what it means for your business.
DefinitionThe Madrid Protocol is the treaty behind WIPO's Madrid System, which lets an Indian business file one international trademark application through IP India and ask for protection in any of the other member countries.
India joined the Madrid Protocol in 2013. Instead of filing a separate application with a local attorney in each country, you file Form MM2 in English with the Indian Trade Marks Registry, which certifies it as the office of origin and sends it to WIPO in Geneva. WIPO records the international registration, publishes it and notifies each country you designated; each one then has 12 or 18 months to refuse, and a mark nobody refuses is protected there as if filed locally. You meet it when a brand starts selling, licensing or raising money abroad, or when a marketplace's brand registry asks for a registration in that territory. What it means for you: one application, one currency (Swiss francs) and one renewal every ten years covering every country, but the international mark depends on your Indian mark for its first five years, and a country outside the system (Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Kuwait among them) still needs a national filing. As of 8 October 2026 the Protocol has 117 members covering 133 countries, and 119 designations can be chosen from India.