"Madrid System for Registration of Trade Marks" offers an attractive route for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to protect their trademarks in all sectors to enhance their global competitiveness while Geographical Indications (GIs) is a must for development of national economies.
This was the upshot of the speeches delivered at a seminar on "Identification of Geographical Indications of Punjab: Madrid System of Registration of Trade Marks" jointly organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Government of Punjab and Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) Pakistan here on Monday.
LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Senior Vice President Kashif Younis Meher, Vice President Saeeda Nazar, LCCI former president Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, Director Industries Sheikh Mohammad Siddique, Director General IPO Sajjad Bhutta, President Basmati Growers Association Hamid Malhi, LCCI Executive Committee Member Nabila Intisar addressed the seminar.
The speakers said the registration of trademark and identification of geographical indications was of great importance for doing business in the world marketplace in particular. "The trademark allows a consumer to distinguish between similar products and stop counterfeiters, while geographical indicators help a country win a respectable place in a global market based on its agricultural and industrial strengths.
Better knowledge and clear understanding of these concepts can lead the country to a stage where the businessmen can not only secure the trademarks based geographical indications under Madrid System but also develop genuine businesses in a country which is fully competitive in the international market."
The speakers said that exporters often realised the importance of registering their trademarks abroad once it was too late, that was, once they were faced with counterfeiters or once they were accused of infringing the rights of others. The risks of doing so were high and the consequences might be extremely costly for a company's entire business and export strategy, they added.
Registering a trademark in foreign markets gives a company the exclusive right to commercialise its products in those markets. This not only provides a solid basis to stop counterfeiters but also ensures that the exporting company enjoys exclusivity over what may be one of its most valuable business assets. Registering a trademark abroad also provides the opportunity to license the trademark to others (often in conjunction with other IP rights) or may be the basis for a company's franchising or merchandising strategy.
The objectives of the system are two-fold: first, to simplify the procedures with a view to protecting a mark with much lower costs and formalities; second, to facilitate the subsequent management of that protection, since an international registration is equivalent to a bundle of national registrations.
As such, this global protection system, by providing cheaper and simpler procedures, makes the possibility of protecting trademarks in a large number of countries a reality for many enterprises, especially SMEs, which otherwise would have never been able to afford protecting their marks internationally. In turn the system contributes to fairer competition and economic development, both at a national level and regionally and globally, which is also in the interests of SMEs, the speakers said.
It goes without saying that reduced costs can enhance profits for SMEs and lead to considerable savings, which can encourage them to seek broader protection of their trademarks abroad, thereby facilitating and fostering the marketing of their branded products in foreign countries. In fact SMEs can perhaps benefit the most from advantages afforded by the Madrid system, they added.