THE REGISTRATION OF TRADEMARKS IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE

The trademark which supports distinguishing goods and services from one enterprise to another enterprise plays a vital role in modern times. Particularly, it is essential to protect trademarks in international trade in order to minimize the risk of infringement of trademarks. With the growth of international trade, many countries have adopted an international mechanism to register trademarks in the global market along with the national market. The most important international instrument many countries including the UK adopted to register trademarks internationally is the Madrid System. However, in Sri Lanka, the trademark law is governed by the Intellectual Property Act No.36 of 2003, and Sri Lanka is not a party to the Madrid System. In this paper the author aimed to discuss the difficulties faced by trademark owners in Sri Lanka to register their trademarks in foreign countries, the applicable existing international mechanism that facilitates to register trademarks internationally, the adequacy of the existing Sri Lankan legal framework pertaining to trademark registration in foreign countries, the key features of international trademark registering mechanism adopted or developed by the UK, and possible reforms that could be made to Sri Lankan legal framework in comparison to the UK. The author conducted this research by using the doctrinal and comparative legal methodology, where the author used primary sources such as international instruments, and statutes, and also secondary sources such as textbooks, scholarly articles, research papers, and journal articles. Then the author finally concluded by highlighting lacunas of the existing legal framework of Sri Lanka pertaining to the registration of trademarks in foreign countries such as the non-availability of a single application registration process to register trademarks in foreign countries, non-availability of the online application process as in the UK. finally, the author recommended that the above lacunas should be remedied.