Registering Your Trademark Abroad from Pakistan: Madrid or National Filings

• National filings. You (through a local agent in each country) file a separate application in each country, under that country’s law, language and fees. Each filing stands on its own.
• A Madrid international application. You file one application with IPO-Pakistan, which certifies it and sends it to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO records an international registration and notifies each country you designated, and each country then decides whether to protect the mark there. One registration is renewed and updated centrally.

The Madrid System has 117 members covering 133 countries, according to WIPO’s members page (read 13 October 2026). Some members are regional organisations: designating the European Union, for example, covers all EU member states in one designation. A country that is not a member can only be covered by a national filing.

IPO-Pakistan acts as “office of origin” for an applicant who meets one of three conditions (Madrid Protocol, Article 2(1); IPO-Pakistan’s Madrid pages):

• the applicant is a national of Pakistan;
• the applicant is domiciled in Pakistan; or
• the applicant has a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in Pakistan.

The TMO explains that a real and effective establishment is any establishment where bona fide industrial or commercial activity takes place; it need not be the principal place of business (s.92B(i), Explanation). A foreign-owned company with a genuine factory or office in Pakistan can therefore qualify. The applicant must be the same person who holds the Pakistani basic application or registration (s.92D(1)).

Every international application filed through IPO-Pakistan rests on a Pakistani “basic mark”: an application under section 22 TMO or a registration under section 33 TMO (ss.92B(ii)–(iii), 92D(1)).

• You need not wait for registration. A pending Pakistani application is enough to file the international application (s.92D(1)).
• Same mark, no wider list. IPO-Pakistan says the international application must show the same mark as the basic application or registration, with the same list of goods and services. Under the Madrid rules the list cannot be wider than the basic mark’s.
• One class per Pakistani application. Pakistan does not accept multi-class applications (rr.13–14, Trade Marks Rules 2004). If you need protection abroad in three classes, you need a Pakistani basic application or registration in each of them. Our guide to trademark classes in Pakistan explains how to choose them.
• Priority. If the international application is filed within six months of the Pakistani application, it can claim that application’s filing date as its priority date (Paris Convention, Article 4; Madrid Protocol, Article 4(2)).

Clear the mark before you file. An objection or opposition against the Pakistani basic mark can bring down every country you designate (see the five-year dependency below). Our guide to trademark search and clearance in Pakistan sets out what to check.

1. Prepare Form MM2. IPO-Pakistan accepts the international application on WIPO’s Form MM2 on paper, by email or through Madrid e-Filing, according to its Madrid pages. The application must name the countries or organisations to be designated (s.92D(3)).
2. Pay IPO’s handling fee. IPO-Pakistan charges PKR 5,000 for each international application, paid through its payment gateway (see the fee table below).
3. IPO certifies and forwards. The Registrar certifies that the particulars match the basic application or registration, states its date and number, and forwards the application to WIPO within the prescribed period (s.92D(4)).
4. WIPO checks formalities. If WIPO finds an irregularity, it notifies the applicant and the Trade Marks Registry, and the irregularity must be corrected (IPO-Pakistan’s office-of-origin page).
5. The international registration date. The registration takes the date on which IPO-Pakistan received the application, provided WIPO receives it within two months; otherwise it takes the date WIPO receives it (Madrid Protocol, Article 3(4)). A complete, accurate filing protects that date.
6. Each country decides. WIPO registers the mark and notifies the designated offices. Each office examines the mark under its own law and may refuse protection within 12 months, or 18 months where it has declared the longer period (Article 5(2)).

Countries can be added later by a subsequent designation, without a new application (s.92D(2); Article 3ter(2)).

WIPO’s fees are in Swiss francs (CHF). They are payable in addition to IPO-Pakistan’s handling fee and the official fees for the Pakistani basic application.

Sources: WIPO Schedule of Fees (as in force from 1 February 2023) and IPO-Pakistan’s filing requirements, both checked 13 October 2026.

The Pakistani basic application’s official fees are set out in our guide to trademark registration cost and timeline in Pakistan. WIPO’s online fee calculator gives the total for a chosen list of countries and classes. If a designated office refuses the mark, answering the refusal usually means instructing a local representative in that country, at that representative’s fees.

For five years from the international registration date, the international registration depends on the Pakistani basic mark. If, within those five years, the basic application or registration is withdrawn, cancelled, expires or is finally refused for some or all goods or services, protection under the international registration ceases to the same extent in every designated country (s.92D(5); Article 6(3)).

• Late decisions still count. If an appeal, a withdrawal request or an opposition against the basic mark began before the five years ended, a final decision that comes later is treated as made within the five years (s.92D(5), proviso).
• IPO reports it to WIPO. During the five years the Registrar must send WIPO the information, and notify the cancellation to be made (s.92D(6)–(7); IPO-Pakistan’s office-of-origin page).
• “Central attack”. A competitor who defeats the Pakistani basic mark by opposition or cancellation removes the brand’s protection in every designated country at once.
• Transformation. If the international registration is cancelled this way, the holder can, within three months of the cancellation, file national applications in the countries that were designated. Each one is treated as filed on the international registration date and keeps any priority (Article 9quinquies).

After five years the international registration becomes independent of the Pakistani mark. Keep the basic mark in use and renewed in Pakistan in any case: our article on non-use revocation of trade marks in Pakistan explains the risk of non-use.

For a Pakistani brand going to the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Union, Raza & Associates acts on the Pakistani side, and counsel qualified in that market acts before its trade mark office. Each guide explains who may represent you there and when that counsel must be appointed:

• US: IP counsel and coordinating firm, with US counsel handling USPTO representation.
• UK: IP counsel and coordinating firm, with UK counsel handling UKIPO representation.
• EU: IP counsel and coordinating firm, with EU counsel handling EUIPO representation.

A designated office that objects sends a provisional refusal through WIPO, which forwards it to the holder (Common Regulations, Rule 17). The refusal states the grounds and the time to respond. The response is made under that country’s law, and many offices require a local representative to file it. IPO-Pakistan has no role in a refusal issued abroad.

Where there is no refusal, or a refusal is withdrawn, the office may send a statement of grant of protection (Rule 18ter). Diarise each designated office’s refusal period, and appoint counsel in the country concerned as soon as a refusal arrives, because response periods vary from country to country.

• The country is not a Madrid member. A national filing is then the only route.
• The Pakistani basic mark is vulnerable. If an objection or opposition in Pakistan is likely, the five-year dependency puts every designation at risk.
• You need a different mark or a wider list abroad. The international application must match the basic mark and cannot cover more goods or services. A version in another script, or a wider specification, needs its own filing.
• Only one or two countries matter. The savings of one central filing are smaller, and a national filing can be tailored from the start.
• You may sell the brand to a buyer outside the Madrid System. An international registration can only be recorded in the name of a person entitled to file international applications (Article 9).

Many brand owners combine the two: Madrid for most countries, national filings where the system does not reach or a local form of the mark is needed.

Sources: Trade Marks (Amendment) Act 2023 and the Madrid Protocol, checked 13 October 2026.

• Renewal: an international registration lasts ten years and is renewed with WIPO for further ten-year periods, for all designated countries in one step (s.92G(1); Articles 6(1) and 7). A six-month grace period applies, with a surcharge (s.92G(2); Article 7(4)).
• The Pakistani basic mark is renewed separately with IPO-Pakistan. During the five-year dependency it must not lapse; see our guide to trademark renewal and recordal in Pakistan.
• Changes: a change of the holder’s name or address, or a change of ownership, is recorded once with WIPO for all designated countries (fee in the table above).

• Filing the international application before clearing the mark in Pakistan, then losing the basic mark to an objection or opposition.
• Letting the Pakistani application lapse (for example, by missing a reply to an objection) within the five years.
• Listing more goods or services in Form MM2 than the basic mark covers.
• Forgetting that each Pakistani application covers one class, so a multi-class international application needs several basic marks.
• Treating the WIPO certificate as protection everywhere before each designated office’s refusal period has run.
• Missing a foreign refusal deadline because no local counsel was lined up.
• Designating a country that is not a Madrid member.

Raza & Associates is an intellectual property and corporate law firm based in Lahore and established in 2005. It is listed in Tier 3 of The Legal 500 ranking for Pakistan intellectual property. Our trademark practice handles trade mark registration and search work in Pakistan and internationally.

Under the TMO, any act other than making an affidavit may be done by a duly authorised agent registered with the Trade Marks Registry (s.127(1)); an agent is appointed on Form TM-48 and must be a legal practitioner or a registered trade mark agent (r.10, Trade Marks Rules 2004). Hashim Raza of the firm is a Registered Trade Mark Agent, IPO-Pakistan (Trade Marks Registry), Reg. No. TM-215/20, on the register since 25 January 2019.

For a Pakistani brand going abroad, we can:

• search the mark in Pakistan before the basic application is filed;
• file and prosecute the Pakistani basic application or applications;
• prepare Form MM2 and file it through IPO-Pakistan;
• track the five-year dependency, renewals and changes recorded with WIPO; and
• work with counsel in designated countries where a refusal has to be answered.

If your brand contains a place name, also read our guide to geographical indication registration in Pakistan.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws and official fees change, so check the current position before you act.

• Trade Marks (Amendment) Act 2023, Act No. LVIII of 2023, Gazette of Pakistan (Extraordinary), 16 August 2023, section 34 (Chapter XA, sections 92A–92I): IPO-Pakistan copy.
• IPO-Pakistan: Pakistan as Office of Origin and Filing International Application through OO (read 13 October 2026).
• WIPO: Madrid Protocol, Schedule of Fees and members (read 13 October 2026).