Bangkok, Thailand. Twenty-six trademark experts (10 men and 16 women), including heads of the Madrid Units from ASEAN Member States, attended a workshop on Madrid Protocol Operations held from 26 to 27 September in Bangkok, Thailand. The workshop was part of the Madrid Protocol Project  Phase 3 managed by the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines and co-funded by the AANZFTA  Economic Cooperation Support Program (AECSP) and the European Union-ASEAN Project on the
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (ECAP III Phase III).

The workshop reviewed recommendations from the previous Madrid Accession Project Phase 2, which successfully contributed to the accession of Cambodia and Lao PDR to the Madrid Protocol in 2015 and supported Myanmar in developing its trademark law. 

Accession to the Madrid Protocol allows business owners to seek trademark protection in multiple jurisdictions simultaneously by filing a single application in one Intellectual Property (IP) office. Being a member of the Madrid System encourages growth in business activities and investments within the AANZFTA region by improving the ease of doing business, specifically in international trademark registration and application.

The meeting allowed IP officials from ASEAN Member States, Australia, the European Union, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to: discuss latest developments; share operational challenges in their respective implementation of the Madrid Protocol; discuss possible issues that countries, such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia, may face when they become members of the Madrid System; and consider the possibility of having common or similar workflows in the processing of international applications and registrations.