Saudi Arabia and the Madrid Protocol: A New Route for Global Brand Protection
From 8 October 2026, businesses seeking trademark protection in Saudi Arabia will have a new route available to them.
Saudi Arabia’s accession to the Madrid Protocol will allow eligible international brand owners to include the Kingdom within an international trademark registration, while Saudi-based trademark owners will be able to use the same system when seeking protection across other member markets.
For businesses managing trademarks across several countries, this is an important development. But what exactly changes? Does a Madrid registration automatically protect a trademark in Saudi Arabia? Is it always preferable to filing a national application? And what happens if the Saudi authorities raise an objection?
Here is what brand owners should know.
First, what is the Madrid Protocol?
The Madrid Protocol is an international system for filing and managing trademarks across multiple jurisdictions.
Administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Madrid System allows an eligible trademark owner to submit one international application and designate the member countries or regions in which protection is required.
Instead of independently initiating applications in several jurisdictions, an applicant can therefore start with:
one international application → one central registration → multiple designated markets
The system now provides access to trademark protection across more than 130 countries. Saudi Arabia deposited its instrument of accession on 8 July 2026, and the Protocol will enter into force in the Kingdom on 8 October 2026.
Importantly, however, the Madrid System does not create a single trademark that is automatically valid everywhere.
Each country designated in an international application retains the authority to determine whether the trademark can be protected within its territory under its own laws.
That distinction is particularly important when considering Saudi Arabia.
So, what changes on 8 October?
Consider an international company that already owns a trademark in its home jurisdiction and plans to expand into Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, the United Kingdom and several other markets.
Previously, Saudi protection had to be pursued through the Kingdom’s national trademark system.
From 8 October, an eligible applicant using the Madrid System can simply include Saudi Arabia as one of the designated countries in an international application.
Similarly, an owner of an existing international registration can later seek to extend that registration to Saudi Arabia through a subsequent designation, provided the applicable Madrid requirements are met.
The change also works in the other direction.
A Saudi business with the required basic Saudi trademark application or registration will be able to use Saudi Arabia as its Office of Origin and seek international protection in other Madrid System members through a single international application. WIPO notes that Saudi Arabia’s accession means national trademark holders in five of the six GCC countries, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, can now use the Madrid System for international protection.
How does an international application actually work?
The process is easier to understand as a journey.
A company first needs what the Madrid System calls a “basic mark”: a trademark application or registration before the intellectual property office of a Madrid System member with which the applicant has the necessary connection.
The international application is then submitted through that Office of Origin to WIPO.
WIPO examines the application for the relevant international formalities. If the requirements are satisfied, the trademark is recorded in the International Register and the offices of the countries selected by the applicant are notified.
This is where an important misconception needs to be addressed:
WIPO registration does not mean automatic Saudi approval.
When Saudi Arabia is designated, the application will still be considered under Saudi trademark law and practice.
The Saudi authorities can therefore examine the mark and determine whether protection should be granted in the Kingdom. If an objection arises, the applicant may need to respond locally in accordance with the applicable Saudi requirements.
In other words, the Madrid Protocol centralises much of the filing and administration of an international portfolio; it does not remove national trademark law from the equation.
How long will Saudi Arabia have to examine a Madrid designation?
Saudi Arabia has declared an 18-month refusal period under the Madrid Protocol.
This means that the Kingdom may notify WIPO of a refusal of protection within 18 months. Saudi Arabia has also made the relevant declaration allowing a refusal based on an opposition to be notified after the expiry of that 18-month period in circumstances permitted under the Protocol.
For brand owners, this reinforces an important point: designating Saudi Arabia is the beginning of the Saudi examination process, not the end of it.
What will it cost to designate Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia has elected to charge individual fees for international registrations designating the Kingdom and for renewals, rather than relying on the Madrid System’s standard complementary fee structure.
From 8 October 2026, the individual fee announced for Saudi Arabia is:
| Transaction | Saudi Arabia individual fee |
|---|---|
| International application or subsequent designation | CHF 1,397 per class |
| Collective or certification mark | CHF 1,719 per class |
| Renewal | CHF 1,397 per class |
| Renewal during the applicable grace period | CHF 1,612 per class |
These Saudi-specific amounts form part of the overall Madrid filing cost. An international application may also attract WIPO’s basic fee and fees relating to other designated jurisdictions. The final cost therefore depends on factors including the mark, the number of classes and the countries selected.
This is why the Madrid route should not automatically be viewed as the “cheaper” route in every case. Its value often lies just as much in centralised portfolio administration and multi-country filing efficiency as in the initial filing cost.
Why could Madrid be particularly useful for growing brands?
Imagine a Saudi company that currently operates only within the Kingdom.
It has plans to enter the UAE next year, Europe the year after, and perhaps selected Asian markets after that.
The company does not necessarily need to predict its entire international footprint today.
A Madrid registration can be expanded through subsequent designations, allowing additional member countries to be added as the business enters new markets.
That flexibility can make the system particularly useful for businesses whose trademark portfolios are developing alongside their commercial expansion.
The administrative benefits can become even more significant as a portfolio grows. International registrations are centrally managed through WIPO, and changes such as certain ownership or holder details can be recorded centrally rather than being handled independently across every designated jurisdiction. International registrations also operate on a ten-year registration cycle and may be renewed for further ten-year periods.
For a company protecting a brand across a substantial number of markets, that consolidation can simplify portfolio management considerably.
But Madrid is not automatically the right filing strategy for every brand
The availability of an international route does not make national filings obsolete.
The appropriate strategy will depend on the brand owner’s markets, commercial plans, existing trademark portfolio, risk profile and the number of jurisdictions in which protection is required.
A company interested only in Saudi Arabia, for example, may assess the Madrid route differently from a multinational business simultaneously seeking protection in ten or twenty jurisdictions.
There is another important consideration: for the first five years, an international registration remains dependent on the basic trademark on which it was founded.
If that basic mark ceases to have effect during the dependency period, for example, through final refusal, withdrawal, cancellation or failure to maintain it, the international registration can be affected correspondingly. After the five-year dependency period expires, the international registration becomes independent of the basic mark.
This dependency is one reason why choosing the filing route should be a strategic decision rather than simply an administrative one.
What if you already have a Saudi trademark registration?
Existing Saudi national registrations do not suddenly disappear when the Madrid Protocol enters into force.
Businesses with established Saudi portfolios should therefore not assume that they need to refile their trademarks internationally.
Instead, this is an opportunity to look at the portfolio more broadly.
Which marks are already protected in Saudi Arabia? Which international registrations could now be extended to the Kingdom? Which brands are entering Saudi Arabia for the first time? Are there planned launches or expansions that make a Madrid designation commercially useful?
The Madrid System also contains a mechanism known as replacement, under which an international registration may, subject to specific requirements, replace an earlier national or regional registration while preserving the benefit of the earlier protection date. WIPO specifically cautions owners to consider the five-year dependency period and confirmation of protection before allowing an existing national registration to lapse.
Accordingly, existing registrations should not simply be abandoned because an international route has become available.
Does Madrid eliminate the need for local trademark advice?
Not necessarily.
The international application and registration may be administered centrally, but the protection granted in Saudi Arabia remains governed by Saudi law.
If the Saudi authorities issue a provisional refusal, if an opposition arises, or if a trademark later needs to be enforced, the matter moves firmly into the national legal framework.
There is also value in assessing registrability before Saudi Arabia is designated. An international filing mechanism does not eliminate risks created by earlier rights, unsuitable specifications, absolute grounds for refusal or other local requirements.
For businesses with commercially important brands, the question should therefore not simply be:
“Can we designate Saudi Arabia through Madrid?”
A more useful question is:
“Is Madrid the right route for this mark, this portfolio and our wider market strategy?”
What should brand owners be doing now?
With the Protocol taking effect in Saudi Arabia on 8 October 2026, businesses can use the transition as an opportunity to review their trademark portfolios.
For international businesses, that may mean identifying brands currently used or intended for use in Saudi Arabia but not yet protected there, and assessing whether national filing or Madrid designation is the more appropriate route.
For Saudi businesses, it may mean looking beyond the domestic portfolio and identifying export markets, franchise territories, licensing markets or future expansion jurisdictions where trademark protection should be secured.
For larger multinational portfolios, it is also worth reviewing existing international registrations to determine where Saudi Arabia could appropriately be added through subsequent designation.
The important point is that Madrid provides an additional route, not a universal replacement for national trademark filing.
A significant step in Saudi Arabia’s international IP integration
Saudi Arabia’s accession to the Madrid Protocol forms part of the Kingdom’s continued engagement with international intellectual property systems. The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property has described the accession as supporting the expansion of services available to rights holders and enabling them to benefit from international systems that facilitate trademark protection domestically and internationally.
For businesses, however, the significance is practical.
From 8 October, a company building a multi-country trademark portfolio will be able to bring Saudi Arabia into the Madrid framework. Saudi businesses will likewise have another mechanism for taking their brands into international markets.
The result is greater choice in how trademark portfolios involving Saudi Arabia are structured and managed.
And that makes the next question for brand owners less about whether Madrid is available, and more about how it should fit into their trademark strategy.
UTMPS assists brand owners with trademark clearance, filing, prosecution, portfolio management and enforcement across Saudi Arabia and the wider MENASA region. Our team can advise on the appropriate filing strategy for Saudi Arabia, including national applications, Madrid Protocol designations and the management of objections or other local proceedings.
