The Madrid Protocol in Latin America: Is Colombia changing business strategies or acting as a guinea pig?

The most recent issue of the European Intellectual Property Review (EIPR) i.e. January, 2013 Vol 35 No 1, brings us an article which aims to “analyse the consequences of Colombia’s accession to the Madrid Protocol, a system which grants an international trade mark with the filing of one application only: the central question is whether Colombia’s accession will produce a “snowball effect” in Latin America.”

In fact, the question appears to be already answered since Mexico, as previously reported here, is now also part of this protocol.

The article's title is the heading of this post and is written by Andres Echeverri Uribe, Organizacion Corona, Bogota, and I.  While the article embarks on studying the advantages and disadvantages of accession for the Colombia’s market in an era of globalization, it also explores the reality of its own small and medium enterprises (SMEs) when trade mark is at issue.

The article can be accessed through Westlaw or Lawtel.