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15. International Business and Intellectual Property

Teaching rewrite of intellectual property (IP) essentials for exporters and importers. Pedagogical summaries only — not legal advice. IP rights are territorial and registration rules differ by country; confirm with an IP attorney before filing or launching.

Introduction​

A company’s brand, inventions, designs, software, and know-how are often worth more than its factories. Yet IP rights stop at the border: a trademark registered at home gives no protection abroad unless it is registered or otherwise protected there. Exporters who forget this find a local distributor — or a counterfeiter — has registered their brand first.

This lesson covers:

  • The IP questions every international business must ask
  • The international framework: WIPO and TRIPS
  • Trademarks and the Madrid System
  • Patents, the Paris Convention priority right, and the PCT
  • Copyright, trade secrets, and industrial designs
  • Domain names and the UDRP
  • Counterfeiting and piracy, enforcement, and parallel imports

15.1 IP issues in international business​

Typical questions:

  • Are our trademarks, inventions, and designs protected in each target market?
  • Do our product names clash with existing rights there?
  • When we use agents, distributors, licensees, or joint-venture partners: who owns the IP and the goodwill, and what happens when the relationship ends?
  • Do we license our technology, or are we licensees?
  • How do we protect confidential know-how when sharing it with partners?
  • How do we stop counterfeits and parallel imports?
  • Can IP be used as collateral, or valued in a sale of the business?

The international framework​

Body / treatyRole
WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva; ~190 member states)Administers most IP treaties (Paris, Berne, Madrid, PCT, Hague) and runs the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center
TRIPS Agreement (WTO, 1995)Sets minimum standards of protection and enforcement that all WTO members must provide; disputes go through WTO dispute settlement

15.2 Trademarks​

A trademark is a sign — word, logo, shape, colour, even sound — that distinguishes one company’s goods or services from others’.

  • Usually protected by registration country by country (some common-law countries also protect unregistered marks through use).
  • Registration lasts typically 10 years and is renewable indefinitely — as long as the mark is used and renewed.
  • Registrations are by class of goods/services (the Nice Classification has 45 classes).

Case snapshot: the borrowed name​

A clothing company had used a children’s-wear brand at home for years, then started exporting. When it tried to enter a neighbouring market, it found a local business had already registered a nearly identical name there. The exporter had to choose between buying the mark, litigating (uncertain), or rebranding for that market. The lesson: search and file before you export, not after.

The Madrid System​

The Madrid Protocol lets an applicant file one international application, in one language, through its home office, designating many member countries — the System covers over 130 countries through 110+ members (including the EU and the African Intellectual Property Organization).

  • One set of fees, one renewal date, central management of changes.
  • Each designated country can still refuse protection under its own law.
  • Dependency: for the first 5 years the international registration depends on the home application/registration; if that falls (a “central attack”), the international registration falls too — though it can be converted into national applications.

Paris Convention priority​

The Paris Convention (1883) gives a right of priority: after first filing in one member country, the applicant has

RightPriority period
Trademarks and industrial designs6 months
Patents and utility models12 months

to file in other member countries, and those later filings are treated as if filed on the first date.

15.3 Patents​

A patent gives the owner the exclusive right to prevent others from making, using, selling, or importing the invention in that country — normally for 20 years from filing — in exchange for public disclosure. The invention must be new, inventive (non-obvious), and industrially applicable.

Novelty traps

Showing a product at a trade fair or publishing it before filing can destroy novelty in most countries. File first, then exhibit.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)​

The PCT (~158 contracting states) does not grant a “world patent”. It provides:

  1. One international application — effective as a filing in all PCT states
  2. An international search report and written opinion on patentability
  3. Optional international preliminary examination
  4. Entry into the national phase usually 30 months from the priority date (31 in some offices) — where each national/regional office decides whether to grant

The value of the PCT is time: the applicant gets up to 30 months to test the market and raise money before paying for translations and national fees.

Regional routes​

  • European Patent Office (EPO): one examination for 39 member states; after grant, the patent is validated nationally — or, since June 2023, as a single Unitary Patent in participating EU states, with the Unified Patent Court.
  • Other regional systems: ARIPO, OAPI (Africa), the Eurasian Patent Office, GCC Patent Office.

Worked example: deadlines​

A company files a patent application at home on 1 March 2026 (priority date).

RouteDeadline
Paris Convention — file directly in other countries1 March 2027 (12 months)
PCT — file international application1 March 2027 (12 months)
PCT — enter national phase1 September 2028 (30 months)

If it also filed its trademark at home on 1 March 2026, the Paris priority deadline for the mark abroad is 1 September 2026 (6 months).

Checkpoint: trademarks and patents​

Quiz

Checkpoint — sections 15.1 to 15.3

1 / 4

A company’s home trademark registration protects it in export markets…

Pick an answer to see if you are right.

  • Protects original expression — texts, software, music, images, films — not ideas.
  • Arises automatically on creation in all Berne Convention countries (~180); no registration needed (though the U.S. requires registration before suing for infringement of U.S. works).
  • Minimum term: life of the author + 50 years (Berne/TRIPS); many countries, including the EU and U.S., grant life + 70.
  • The WIPO internet treaties (WCT, WPPT) extended protection to digital use.

Trade secrets​

Confidential business information — formulas, processes, customer lists, pricing — with commercial value, kept secret by reasonable measures. TRIPS (Art. 39) requires protection against disclosure or use “contrary to honest commercial practices”; the EU Trade Secrets Directive (2016) and the U.S. Defend Trade Secrets Act (2016) strengthened remedies.

Protection lasts as long as secrecy does. Practical measures: NDAs with partners and employees, need-to-know access, marking, and exit procedures.

Industrial designs​

Protect the appearance of a product (shape, lines, ornamentation).

  • EU: a registered Community (EU) design covers all 27 member states — up to 25 years in 5-year terms; an unregistered EU design gives 3 years from first disclosure in the EU against copying.
  • Hague System (WIPO): one international design application for many countries.

15.5 Domain names​

A domain name can be the most visible piece of a brand. Disputes arise when someone registers a domain matching another’s trademark (cybersquatting).

The UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy, ICANN) — mandatory for generic top-level domains like .com — lets a trademark owner win transfer or cancellation by proving all three elements:

  1. The domain is identical or confusingly similar to its trademark
  2. The registrant has no rights or legitimate interests in the name
  3. The domain was registered and is being used in bad faith

Cases go to providers such as the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, are decided on written submissions in about two months, and cost far less than court litigation. Remedies are limited to transfer or cancellation — no damages.

15.6 Counterfeiting, piracy, and parallel imports​

  • Counterfeiting: unauthorised use of a trademark on look-alike goods. Piracy: unauthorised copying of copyright works. Both harm brand owners, consumers (unsafe medicines, parts), and governments (lost tax).
  • Enforcement tools: record trademarks with customs (e.g. EU customs applications for action, U.S. CBP recordation) so border officers can detain suspect goods; online marketplace takedown programmes; civil and criminal action.
  • BASCAP (Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy) is ICC’s initiative bringing companies together on the problem.
ACTA update

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), signed in 2011, was rejected by the European Parliament in 2012 and never entered into force. Enforcement work has since moved to bilateral/regional trade agreements and cooperation among customs authorities and platforms.

Parallel imports (grey market)​

Genuine goods put on the market by the right holder in one country and imported into another without the right holder’s consent — usually to exploit price differences.

Whether the right holder can block them depends on exhaustion rules, which TRIPS leaves to each country:

RegimeEffectExample
National exhaustionRights exhausted only by first sale at home — parallel imports can be blockedSome countries for certain rights
Regional exhaustionFirst sale anywhere in the region exhausts rights; imports from outside can be blockedEU/EEA for trademarks
International exhaustionFirst sale anywhere exhausts rights — parallel imports allowedSeveral countries (varies by right)

Case snapshot: the cheaper bottles​

A brand owner sold its product cheaply in a distant market. Traders bought stock there and shipped it back to the brand owner’s main market, undercutting authorised distributors. Because that main market applied regional exhaustion, and the goods were first sold outside the region, the brand owner could stop the imports — but only by proving the goods had never been put on the market inside the region with its consent.

Worked example: is the grey market worth it?​

A perfume sells for EUR 60 wholesale in Market A and EUR 40 in Market B. A parallel trader pays transport and handling of EUR 4 per unit and needs a margin of EUR 6.

Landed cost into A = 40 + 4 = EUR 44; with margin the trader can offer EUR 50, undercutting the authorised price by EUR 10 (about 17%). Narrowing the price gap below EUR 10 removes the incentive — one reason brands harmonise prices across markets.

Checkpoint: other rights and enforcement​

Quiz

Checkpoint — sections 15.4 to 15.6

1 / 4

Which right needs no registration in Berne Convention countries?

Pick an answer to see if you are right.

Rank: building an IP strategy for export​

Quiz

Sequence an export IP plan

1 / 2

Rank the steps before entering a new export market.

OrderDrag the handle to rearrange — top should be first.

  1. 1Search the target market for conflicting rights.
  2. 2Sign agreements with distributors/licensees confirming IP ownership, NDA, and return of rights on termination.
  3. 3File trademark, patent, and design applications (using priority, Madrid, PCT, Hague).
  4. 4Inventory the IP assets (brands, inventions, designs, software, know-how).
  5. 5Launch, then monitor and enforce (customs recordation, takedowns).

Drag items into the correct order (or use ↑↓), then check.

Check: intellectual property​

Quiz

International business and intellectual property

1 / 7

Which agreement sets minimum IP standards enforceable through WTO dispute settlement?

Pick an answer to see if you are right.

Takeaways​

Remember
  • IP is territorial — register in each market (often before your distributor or a squatter does)
  • WIPO runs the filing treaties; TRIPS sets enforceable minimum standards
  • Priority: 6 months for trademarks/designs, 12 months for patents (Paris Convention)
  • Madrid = one trademark application; PCT = one patent application and ~30 months to decide; Hague = designs
  • Copyright is automatic; trade secrets last as long as you keep them secret
  • UDRP for cybersquatting: similarity + no legitimate interest + bad faith
  • Fight counterfeits with customs recordation; parallel imports depend on exhaustion rules

Further Reading​