Samoa accedes to the International Register of Trademarks Agreement

19 December 2018, 12:00AM

PR - A delegation of four representing the Government led by the Minister of Commerce Industry and Labour, Lautafi Fio Selafi Purcell, was in Geneva, Switzerland recently.

They were there to deposit Samoa’s Accession Document to the WIPO Madrid Protocol Agreement.

The Madrid System is a global system which is cheaper and aims to simplify and speed up foreign registration of trademarks. It will enable small and medium enterprises in Samoa to designate over a 118 member countries of the Madrid Protocol for registration of their trademark.

This will go hand in hand with the Enabling Intellectual Property Environment (EIE) Project, a pilot project in the region and a collaboration between WIPO and MCIL which focuses on building the capacity of SMEs to better use branding tools such as trademarks and designs to add value to their businesses. 

It is anticipated that such a developments will create a lot of work in the trademark area in Samoa and with MCIL adopting a paperless Registry the Ministry will focus more on awareness and enforcement of trademark registrations. Samoa is the first Pacific Island Country to accede to the Madrid Protocol. 

19 December 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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