Answer
How do I protect my trademark in other countries?
Lawyers call this: territoriality · Madrid Protocol · 15 U.S.C. §§ 1141–1141n
Short answer
Register in each country or region where you sell, make, or plan to sell. A U.S. registration protects you only in the United States. There is no worldwide trademark. You can file country by country, or use the Madrid Protocol to file one application through the USPTO that reaches more than 120 countries and regional offices.
The obvious risk is someone else registering your name abroad first. In many countries, rights come mainly from registration, not use, so an earlier local filing can block you even where you sold first.
What changes the answer
- Where you sell and where you manufacture
- Protect the markets that make you money and the countries where your goods are made. A registration where your factory sits can matter as much as one where your customers are.
- Whether you are inside six months of your U.S. filing
- A foreign application filed within six months of your U.S. application can generally claim your U.S. filing date as its priority date under the Paris Convention.
- How stable your U.S. filing is
- A Madrid registration depends on the U.S. application or registration it is based on for five years. If the U.S. filing fails in that period, the foreign protection built on it fails too.
- How narrow your U.S. description is
- A Madrid filing cannot cover more than your U.S. application or registration. U.S. descriptions are narrow, so direct national filings can sometimes claim broader coverage.
- Whether the country is a Madrid member
- Most major markets are, but not every country is. A non-member has to be filed in directly.
The rule
Trademark rights are territorial: each country grants its own rights under its own law. Under the Paris Convention, an application filed in another member country within six months of your first filing can claim that first filing date. Paris Convention, art. 4. The United States implements the Madrid Protocol at 15 U.S.C. §§ 1141–1141n and 37 C.F.R. pt. 7 (2026).
A Madrid application from the United States must match the owner, the mark and the goods of a U.S. application or registration, called the basic application or registration. 37 C.F.R. § 7.11 (2026). The USPTO certifies that match and forwards it to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which issues one international registration. 37 C.F.R. § 7.13 (2026). Each country you designate then examines the mark under its own law and can refuse it.
For five years from the international registration date, it depends on the basic application or registration. If the U.S. filing is abandoned, refused or cancelled in that period — including through a third party’s challenge, which practitioners call a central attack — the international registration is cancelled to the same extent. Madrid Protocol, Art. 6(3). The owner can then convert the lost coverage into national filings in each country within three months, keeping the original date. Madrid Protocol, Art. 9quinquies.
The USPTO’s certification fee is $100 per class for an application based on one U.S. filing, and WIPO charges its own fees, including a fee for each designated country. 37 C.F.R. § 7.6(a)(1) (2026); WIPO fee calculator. Starting October 1, 2026, the USPTO requires new outbound Madrid applications to be filed through WIPO’s Madrid e-Filing system, with fees paid to WIPO in Swiss francs.
What to do next
Search before you file abroad. WIPO’s Global Brand Database is free and covers international registrations under the Madrid System plus trademarks from participating national and regional offices. Coverage varies by country, so no hits there does not mean no hits everywhere. For key markets, also search the national office’s own database.
Then list the countries that matter in the next three to five years and compare the cost of a Madrid filing with direct filings in each.
A Madrid application based on a stable U.S. registration, designating a few countries, is paperwork many owners can prepare. The hard part comes after filing. A refusal from a foreign office usually has to be answered under that country’s law, often through a local lawyer, and the choice of route and countries is where coordinated advice pays for itself.
If you are expanding abroad, Valet Law, PLLC can plan the filing route, coordinate with lawyers in each country, and track the foreign deadlines.
Attorney review is provided by Valet Law, PLLC, a law firm separate from Trademark Valet, LLC. Keep confidential facts out of public tools. Your first message to Valet Law should identify the parties and the general issue only. Wait until Valet Law confirms it can discuss the matter before sending confidential details.
Who checked this
Reviewed and approved by Brandon Leavitt on 2026-10-02.
General information about how trademark law works. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not make anyone your lawyer.