Pakistan became a member of the Madrid Protocol on February 24, 2021 which was ratified on May 24, 2021. Since then, approximately 5,000 trade mark applications have been filed designating Pakistan to-date but only a handful of local applicants have taken advantage of the same as negligible number of applications have been filed under the Madrid Protocol.
In view of the time constraints for examination of such applications the Trade Marks Registry has been examining the applications filed under the Madrid Protocol very efficiently. A handful of applications have sailed through without issuance of examination report but a number of applications face objections by the Trade Marks Registry. At times there are delays in receipt of examination reports by the applicants through WIPO as the deadline for filing responses to such examination reports is two months which cause anxiety to some clients. We have been assisting our non-Pakistan based clients in filing responses to such examination reports.