A delegation from the Republic of Moldova, represented by Cristina Avornic, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Moldova Mission to the UN, Natalia Mogol, Deputy Director General of the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI) and Ludmila Cocieru, Head of International Trademarks Division, AGEPI participated from October 7 to 11, 2024, in the 22nd session of the Working Group on the Legal Development of the Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks, which took place in Geneva.

As the coordinator of the Regional Group of Central European and Baltic States (CEBS) within the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Republic of Moldova presented five statements on behalf of the represented states.

The Working Group meeting was opened by Binying Wang, WIPO Deputy Director General, who welcomed the accession of the Kingdom of Qatar to the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks (Madrid Protocol) and emphasized the importance and commitment of the International Office in order to expand the Madrid System, which currently has 115 contracting parties and covers 131 states.

The meeting was attended by representatives of 83 contracting parties, 11 observer states, 1 international intergovernmental organization and 17 international non-governmental organizations.

On the agenda of this year’s session there were topics of major importance for the evolution of the Madrid System, including dependency, the recalculation of the individual fees in Swiss francs, the mandatory introduction of the e-mail address for selected requests and procedures related to international registrations, the possible introduction of additional languages ​​in the international trademark registration system and technical ways of achieving them.

For the first time this year, within the Working Group, the proposal of the Republic of Moldova regarding the efficiency of the trademark registration system in the case of international applications submitted by two or more applicants was discussed.

The proposal addresses one of the constraints reported by Madrid System users who have filed international applications with the AGEPI home country office, namely the fact that if the basic national application/registration is jointly owned by two or several applicants, in order to submit an international application in accordance with the Madrid System, each of them must prove either that they have the citizenship of the Republic of Moldova, or that they have their domicile or a real and effective enterprise in the Republic of Moldova. This requirement follows from Rule 8(2) of the Madrid Protocol Implementing Regulations.

The Republic of Moldova came up with the proposal to admit international applications submitted by two or more applicants and if at least one is related to the contracting party of the office of origin, the rest of the co-applicants being related to any other contracting party. In this regard, the revision of Rule 8(2) of the Regulations under the Madrid Protocol was proposed.

Although it was supported by the vast majority of participants in the Group’s work, in order to reach consensus, the further consideration of the possibility of revising Rule 8(2) of the Regulations under the Madrid Protocol, was transferred to the next meeting of the Working Group.

Also, during the discussions, issues related to the possibility of convening a diplomatic conference to amend Art. 6 of the Madrid Protocol, in order to revise the dependency clause, a subject that did not meet the necessary support, and new options for revising this clause will be examined at the next meeting of the Working Group.

At the proposal of the CEBS group, Natalia Mogol was unanimously elected as vice-president for the next two sessions of the Working Group.

Additionally, on October 8, a roundtable was organized during which the International Office of WIPO presented some aspects related to the processing of international applications for trademark registration: the electronic submission of applications and the exchange of data with intellectual property offices, classification of goods and services, development of databases, use of unified terms, promotion of the Madrid System, etc.

The participation of the Republic of Moldova in this international framework reflects our country’s commitment to actively contribute to the consolidation and development of the international trademark protection system, in accordance with new global trends and challenges.

All materials, including the proposal of the Republic of Moldova, can be accessed at https://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=80918.