Members
Adherence to the convention or the protocol includes membership of the "Madrid Union." As of December, 2012, there were 89 members. The original treaty has 56 members, 55 of which (with the exception of Algeria) are also party to the protocol. The term 'Madrid Union' can be used to describe those jurisdictions party to either the Agreement or the Protocol (or both).
The primary reason the protocol—which has been in operation since 2004 and has 78 members—is more popular than the agreement—which has been in operation for more than 110 years and has 56 members—is that the protocol introduced a number of changes to the Madrid system which significantly enhanced its usefulness to trademark owners.
For example, under the protocol it is possible to obtain an international registration based on a pending trade mark application, so that a trade mark owner can effectively apply for international registration concurrently, or immediately after, filing an application in a member jurisdiction. By comparison, the agreement requires that the trade mark owner already holds an existing registration in a member jurisdiction, which may often take many months and sometimes years to obtain in the first place. In addition, the agreement does not provide the option to 'convert' international registrations which have been 'centrally attacked.'
Read more about this topic: Madrid System
Famous quotes containing the word members:
“If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then the best lives for the writer to observe are those in which the role of natural necessity is clearest, namely, the lives of the very poor.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)
“A multitude of little superfluous precautions engender here a population of deputies and sub-officials, each of whom acquits himself with an air of importance and a rigorous precision, which seemed to say, though everything is done with much silence, “Make way, I am one of the members of the grand machine of state.””
—Marquis De Custine (1790–1857)
“I esteem it the happiness of this country that its settlers, whilst they were exploring their granted and natural rights and determining the power of the magistrate, were united by personal affection. Members of a church before whose searching covenant all rank was abolished, they stood in awe of each other, as religious men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)