On September 22-26, 2025, the 23rd session of the Working Group on the Legal Development of the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was held in Geneva.

 

The Working Group meeting is a key platform for expert discussion of technical and legal changes aimed at improving one of the most used global IP protection systems, which currently covers 131 countries and provides a convenient and cost-effective procedure for international trademark protection.

 

The agenda of the 23rd session of the WIPO Working Group included issues that determine the further development of the Madrid System and concern:

 

• amendments to the Rules to the Protocol to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (the Rules);

 

• dependency of international registration on the basic application or registration;

 

• Language policy of the system.

 

 

The Ukrainian delegation, which included representatives of the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine and the Ukrainian National Office for Intellectual Property and Innovations (UANIPIO/IP Office), made a number of statements aimed at protecting national interests in the sphere of IP, ensuring legal certainty and transparency of the Madrid System.

 

The Ukrainian delegation at the WIPO headquarters in Geneva was represented by:

 

• Ms Tetiana TEREKHOVA, Head of the Industrial Property Development Department;

 

• Ms Natalia PECHERYTSIA, Leading Expert of the International Trademark Registration Unit, Division of the Trademark, Industrial Design, and Geographical Indication Examination, Department of the Industrial Property Examination at UANIPIO;

 

• Mr Ramiz RAMAZANOV, Counsellor, Economic Section, Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva.

 

Countering russian federation attempts to legitimize the occupation through the IP system

 

After the 65th series of WIPO Assembly meetings (July 2024), at least three new international trademark registrations under the Madrid System were made with addresses in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine indicated as originating from the russian federation. In view of this, in its introductory statement, the Ukrainian delegation stressed the inadmissibility of using WIPO’s global services to legitimize the temporary occupation of Ukrainian territories and noted the urgent need to develop practical and effective solutions to block such applications.

 

The Ukrainian delegation, in particular, expressed its strong protest against the recent registration of the Massandra TM in the International Register of the Madrid System.

 

 

“On the 7th of August 2025, just one month after our in-depth discussion of this issue at the WIPO General Assembly, the International Bureau published the International Registration № 1867868 for the trademark “MASSANDRA”, which falsely indicates the address of the applicant from temporarily occupied Crimea as the address from russian federation.

 

This is not an isolated incident. According to our preliminary analysis, more than 50 international trademark registrations processed under the Madrid System and published via the Madrid Monitor falsely indicated addresses in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine”, – said in the statement.

 

The Ukrainian delegation called on the International Bureau of WIPO to act decisively and transparently in compliance with the principles of international law and obligations under the UN Charter, as well as to introduce technical solutions that would prevent the incorrect indication of the state in the addresses of applicants from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and block any attempts to file applications with false information about the territorial affiliation of applicants.

 

Discussion of amendments to the Madrid System

 

During the discussion of the agenda item on amendments to the Rules, the Ukrainian delegation expressed its readiness to support technically sound proposals that would improve the efficiency and user-friendliness of the system.

 

Regarding the introduction of a requirement for the mandatory issuance of a national or regional certificate simultaneously with the submission of an application for legal protection of a trademark under international registration, the Ukrainian side informed the Working Group about Ukraine’s legislation and practice on this issue and noted that the implementation of the proposed changes would require the harmonization of the national legislation of member states, as well as additional administrative and financial resources to modernize internal procedures and automated systems.

 

The Ukrainian side also supported the Republic of Moldova’s initiative to amend the Rules to simplify the filing of international applications by several persons who are co-owners of the basic trademark, if not all of them have a legal connection with the country of origin. The delegation emphasized that this decision would increase the flexibility of the system and convenience for users, and also supported the need to introduce a transition period for the technical and legal adaptation of national authorities to these changes.

 

Ukraine also welcomed the UK’s proposal to allow partial renewal of international registrations only in those countries and for those goods/services where legal protection remains necessary, as this approach would optimize user costs and make the system more flexible.

 

The participants also discussed other possible ways to improve the Madrid System procedures, including a centralized procedure for replacing national or regional trademark registrations with international registrations, as well as the possibility of filing a request for territorial extension before an international registration number is assigned.

 

In general, participants agreed to continue discussing these issues and to explore opportunities for improving the Madrid Monitor service and reducing application processing times. In addition, the Working Group reached a consensus on amending Rules 3, 18, 25, and 27, with the amendments to take effect on November 1, 2026.

 

Language policy issues: Ukraine’s position

 

The delegation paid particular attention to the discussion on the language policy of the Madrid System. Ukraine emphasized the unacceptability of introduction russian as the working language of the Madrid System. It should be noted that the current working languages of the system are English, French, and Spanish.

 

Instead, it expressed its willingness to support the temporary solution proposed by a group of states (Brazil, Cape Verde, Germany, Japan, Mozambique, the Republic of Korea, Portugal, and São Tomé and Príncipe), which provides for the use of the so-called “international registration language option.”

 

At the same time, the Ukrainian side stressed that the introduction of this approach should be based on an analysis of the real needs of users and the technical capabilities of automated translation. It was proposed to limit the range of languages for international registration to those that are most in demand in order to avoid excessive load on the system, while also noting the inadmissibility of using russian as a language for international registration.

 

Following the discussion, the Working Group decided to continue discussing this issue at subsequent sessions. At the same time, most delegations want to focus on assessing the technical capabilities and financial implications of introducing new languages and the international registration language option.

 

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