It is a common Singapore story we have seen many times before: a business is growing and thriving in Singapore, its brand is gaining well-deserved recognition, and international expansion is just around the corner. Yet without proper trademark protection beyond Singapore’s borders, this valuable brand asset remains exposed to competitors, counterfeiters, and opportunistic trademark squatters in target markets.
The challenge stems from a stinging reality: trademark rights are territorial. A trademark registered with
Singapore’s Intellectual Property Office (IPOS) grants protection exclusively within Singapore’s borders.
This protection gap can prove costly. Without international trademark registration, competitors can easily adopt similar marks in foreign markets, potentially blocking your expansion or forcing you to be mired in expensive legal battles. Worse still, trademark squatters may register your brand in key markets, demanding hefty payments for rights to your own intellectual property.
Thankfully, it has been our experience that Singapore’s strategic position allows for powerful solutions. The nation’s
accession to the Madrid Protocol in 2000, combined with WIPO’s office in Singapore, creates pathways for efficient international trademark protection.
This article demonstrates how to select the best protection strategy for your expansion goals, avoid costly filing mistakes, and build a defensible global trademark portfolio. You will discover the two primary registration routes available, learn which approach suits your business circumstances, and understand the critical steps that separate successful international trademark campaigns from expensive failures.
The Critical Decision: Choosing Your International Registration Strategy
Madrid Protocol Overview
The Madrid Protocol offers a centralised system for trademark protection across multiple countries through a single application. This
system covers 131 countries across 115 members, representing over 80% of world trade through one streamlined process.
Businesses must have a qualifying connection to a member country through nationality, domicile, or industrial establishment. For Singapore companies, this means filing an international application through IPOS based on an existing Singapore trademark application or registration (your “basic mark”).
The financial benefits become apparent when targeting multiple countries.
A Madrid filing can be up to 50% cheaper than individual applications when seeking protection in 5-10 countries. The system operates through a single currency (Swiss francs) and offers centralised management for renewals and ownership changes.
However, the Madrid Protocol carries a significant vulnerability: “central attack.” For five years after registration, your entire international portfolio depends on the Singapore basic mark. If that mark faces successful opposition, cancellation, or withdrawal, your international registration collapses accordingly.
Related Read: Trademark Tips: Guide to Understanding the Madrid Protocol
Direct National Filing Overview
Direct National Filing involves submitting separate applications to each target country’s intellectual property office. This traditional approach offers complete independence, as each application stands alone, immune to central attack risks.
This method provides maximum flexibility. You can adapt marks for local markets, modify goods and services descriptions, and tailor applications to specific legal requirements. Local counsel engagement from the outset also provides useful market expertise and examination insights.
It should be noted that Direct Filing is actually the only option for commercially important non-Madrid members like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Myanmar. The approach typically costs more for large-scale filings but may prove economical for one or two target countries.
Strategic Decision Framework
Cost-effectiveness of the Madrid approach typically begins when targeting three or more countries. For a more limited geographical scope, Direct Filing often costs less while providing enhanced security.
On the other hand, a hybrid approach combines both systems, using Madrid for core member countries with strong, uncontroversial marks, while seeking Direct Filing for critical markets requiring local expertise or non-member territories.
Pre-Filing Foundation: Building a Strong Trademark Portfolio
Creating Registrable Marks
The first step towards strong international trademark protection is meeting the very specific legal criteria of local Singapore trademark registration.
Section 7 of Singapore’s Trade Marks Act lists absolute grounds for refusal that we have seen sink applications before they reach examination.
In basic terms, distinctiveness separates registrable marks from unusable ones. Purely descriptive terms will also fail registration, e.g., “SUPER” for quality or “CHEAP” for pricing will trigger automatic refusal. We have also seen generic language to be a common reason for rejection.
With that being said, non-distinctive marks can still gain registration through “acquired distinctiveness”, which is established by a statutory declaration that proves substantial public association between the trademark and its associated goods.
To be clear, we have seen some Madrid Protocol users face heightened risk from weak basic trademarks. Challenges against your Singapore registration during the aforementioned five-year dependency period have the real possibility of decimating international portfolios. Strong domestic trademarks, therefore, become the very foundation supporting global protection strategies.
Search Strategy Development
In our experience, existing rights are the biggest threat to new applications.
IPOS scrutinises applications under Section 8 relative grounds, and will reject trademark applications that confuse consumers with earlier registrations.
Multi-level searching catches potential conflicts.
IPOS Digital Hub’s Similar Mark Search reveals national database problems, while
WIPO’s Global Brand Database expands coverage across nine ASEAN members and beyond.
When you are protecting the future of your IP, high-value trademarks absolutely warrant professional, trusted search services like InCorp. These providers spot confusingly similar marks through phonetic, visual, and conceptual analysis that free tools often miss. Sophisticated algorithms and expert evaluation also uncover risks that basic searches can overlook.
Ultimately, trademark search efforts shape pathway selection – once your search strategy is complete, your choice between the Madrid Protocol and Direct Filing will be much clearer. Clean results support Madrid Protocol applications, while potential conflicts favour Direct Filing’s distributed risk approach.
Classification Requirements
The Nice Agreement is an international agreement designed to classify goods and services. The
Nice Classification divides global commerce into 45 classes (34 goods and 11 services). Understandably, classification accuracy defines the protection scope and controls costs.
The financial impact extends beyond the obvious filing fees. The real cost comes from examination delays when examiners reject poorly crafted specifications. As mentioned earlier, smart applicants will have a professional service provider such as InCorp specifically research IPOS pre-approved databases before filing, matching their business activities to accepted terminology that sails through examination.
Classification strategy affects your competitive position, too. Narrow specifications leave gaps that competitors exploit, while overly broad applications invite opposition from established players. Please note that
the 12th Edition Version 2025 took effect January 1, 2025, bringing changes that could invalidate outdated classification approaches.
International Trademark Application Process: Challenges and Solution
Common Procedural Pitfalls
We have seen certain elements of international trademark applications catch even experienced businesses off guard. Madrid Protocol applications demand perfect alignment between your Singapore basic mark and international designation, with even minor discrepancies triggering refusal.
In essence, the mark must be precisely identical, and goods or services lists cannot expand beyond your Singapore registration scope. This inflexibility often surprises applicants who simply assume international filing offers the same flexibility as domestic applications.
Language barriers can also create expensive mistakes in Direct Filing campaigns. As you might imagine, each country demands applications in local languages with specific formatting requirements that vary wildly. Translation errors in goods/services descriptions can also cause examination objections that cost time and money to resolve.
Professional partners like InCorp, which have representation in multiple markets, become your lifeline here, as coordinating multiple agents across time zones can be challenging even for the most experienced businesses.
Priority claims become minefields for international filings.
The 6-month Paris Convention window applies to each country individually, but calculating deadlines across multiple jurisdictions with different holiday schedules creates scheduling nightmares. Missing priority in key markets hands competitors advantages that prove impossible to recover.
Finally, currency fluctuations punch holes in Madrid Protocol budgets filed in Swiss francs. Direct Filing forces you to juggle payments in multiple currencies, where exchange rate movements between filing and payment create unexpected cost overruns that strain budgets.
Managing Examination and Deadlines
International examination creates a complex web of varying timelines. Madrid Protocol members have 12 or 18-month periods to issue refusals, creating extended uncertainty where applications remain vulnerable. Some countries issue early provisional refusals demanding immediate responses, others stay silent until worryingly close to the deadline expiry.
On the other hand, Direct Filing creates multiple concurrent deadline issues across different jurisdictions. For example, managing responses to office actions in Australia, Malaysia, and Thailand simultaneously demands sophisticated project management that many businesses underestimate. Missing any single deadline destroys protection in that market, leaving other applications intact but creating portfolio gaps.
Madrid transformation rights provide safety nets when basic marks face challenges, but transformation requires paying national fees in each designated country, which can in some cases, negate the cost advantages that made Madrid attractive initially.
Timeline Expectations
International timelines stretch far beyond domestic expectations, testing patience and budgets. Madrid Protocol applications typically require 18-24 months for final resolution across all designated countries, with some notorious jurisdictions extending much longer. Direct Filing timelines vary dramatically, where Singapore processes applications efficiently, but other members may require 2-3 years for completion.
International Trademark Post-Registration Protection and Maintenance
Renewal Management
Of course, international trademark registration is not the end of your intellectual property protection efforts. International trademark registrations require ongoing maintenance to preserve rights. Madrid Protocol registrations
last 10 years and can be renewed indefinitely for subsequent 10-year periods through WIPO’s centralised system. WIPO sends unofficial expiry notices, but trademark holders bear responsibility for timely renewal.
Renewal filing can occur 6 months before expiry or within a 6-month grace period after expiry, though late renewal incurs surcharges. The process operates through WIPO’s eMadrid system, requiring basic fees plus individual country fees for maintaining protection in designated territories.
Direct National Filing renewals mean individual attention is needed for each country’s registration. Each country imposes specific laws and timelines, with typically 10-year periods from registration dates, though jurisdictions vary. Trademark owners must monitor multiple renewal deadlines and pay required fees to each national office, often requiring local counsel assistance.
Use Requirements and Brand Protection
Many countries enforce “use it or lose it” policies where trademarks unused for continuous periods
(typically 3 to 5 years) become vulnerable to cancellation for non-use. Proper trademark use demands consistency with registered forms—significant alterations could weaken protection and may not qualify as “use” of the registered mark.
Correct symbol usage varies internationally. Registered marks should display ® symbols, but using this symbol for unregistered marks can trigger penalties. The ™ symbol applies to unregistered marks claiming trademark status. Local laws regarding trademark symbols differ between countries, requiring careful compliance management.
Monitoring and Enforcement
Effective protection requires proactive marketplace monitoring across e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Alibaba, social media, and app stores. Professional trademark watch services can monitor new applications worldwide, alerting owners to potential conflicts that require opposition action.
The enforcement process will generally begin with cease and desist letters drafted by legal counsel. Customs agencies in key markets also allow for blocking counterfeit imports. Persistent infringement may require legal action, with website domain disputes potentially resolved through
UDRP procedures as a faster alternative to court litigation.
Where to Next With InCorp
International trademark registration fundamentally changes your brand from a Singapore-only asset into a truly global intellectual property that competitors cannot exploit. The territorial nature of trademark rights means protection beyond Singapore’s borders requires well-thought-out action through either the Madrid Protocol or the Direct Filing approaches.
At InCorp, our intellectual property specialists guide Singapore businesses through successful international trademark campaigns. We handle the complex coordination between IPOS, WIPO, and foreign trademark offices, ensuring your applications meet exacting requirements while maximising protection scope.
Contact InCorp today to discuss your international trademark strategy. Our specialists will assess your expansion plans, identify the optimal protection approach, and guide you through building a defensible global trademark portfolio that secures your brand’s future across international markets.
FAQs about International Trademark
- Madrid Protocol becomes cost-effective when targeting 3 or more member countries and offers centralised management, but creates a "central attack" vulnerability for five years. Direct Filing costs more for multiple countries but provides complete independence and is necessary for non-Madrid members like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Myanmar.
- Madrid Protocol applications typically require 18-24 months for final resolution across all designated countries, with some jurisdictions extending longer. Direct Filing timelines vary dramatically by country, ranging from Singapore's efficient processing to 2-3 years in other jurisdictions, depending on examination complexity.
- Key risks include central attack vulnerability with the Madrid Protocol where challenges to your Singapore basic mark can destroy your entire international portfolio, procedural pitfalls from misaligned applications, language barriers causing examination objections, missed priority deadlines, and ongoing use requirements that could trigger cancellation for non-use.
About the Author
InCorp's content team includes talented copywriters from our regional group and globally. We contribute informative, thought leadership, and market-trending articles to guide aspiring business entrepreneurs to a higher level across the Asia-Pacific region.
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