A group with 25 or more trademark registrations spread across the EU, Latin America and Africa usually spends less, and loses fewer rights, when one adviser runs the whole portfolio than when each country is left to a separate local agent. Global IP portfolio legal services work best as an operating model: one register, one deadline calendar, one strategy and one point of contact who coordinates the offices and correspondents. This article sets out that model for in-house legal, brand and finance teams.
Key takeaways
- A dispersed portfolio fails at the seams: renewal dates, use requirements and opposition windows differ by office and are easy to miss.
- Use rules are not uniform: five years in the EU and Mercosur, three years in the Andean Community, where use in any member country counts.
- WIPO counted 943,743 Madrid registrations in force at the end of 2025 and 43,049 renewals that year, up 7%: portfolios are growing and ageing at the same time.
- Centralising means one golden record and one docket, not taking work away from local experts.
- The model pays off most in ownership clean-up, renewals, use evidence and oppositions.
Why does a dispersed trademark portfolio cost more than it seems?
Most multinational portfolios grow by accretion. A subsidiary files in Mexico, a distributor registers in Morocco, the head office files an EU trade mark, and ten years later nobody holds a complete list. Each local agent bills, reports and reminds in its own format, so headquarters sees invoices but not risks.
The scale of the problem is visible in WIPO’s figures. According to the Madrid System Yearly Review 2026 (13 May 2026), 943,743 international registrations were in force at the end of 2025 (+2.4%), holders filed 68,264 subsequent designations to extend existing registrations (+2.5%) and renewed 43,049 registrations (+7%). Every one of those events is a deadline someone had to manage, and Madrid covers only part of the corridor; national registrations in countries such as Argentina or Peru sit on separate calendars.
The hidden costs are predictable: duplicated searches, overlapping or missing classes, marks registered in the name of a company that no longer exists, renewals paid for products the group stopped selling, and registrations lost to non-use because nobody kept evidence.
Which deadlines must a central docket track?
The table shows why a single calendar matters. The same brand faces different clocks in each system.
| System | Opposition window | Use requirement | Renewal |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU trade mark (EUIPO) | 3 months from publication | Genuine use in the EU within 5 years of registration, and no 5-year interruption (Art. 18 EUTMR) | Every 10 years |
| Andean Community (Decision 486: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru) | 30 days from publication, plus 30 days for evidence on request (Art. 146) | Cancellation if not used for 3 consecutive years in at least one member country (Art. 165) | Every 10 years; request within 6 months before expiry, with a 6-month grace period (Arts. 152-153) |
| Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) | Set by each national law | Cancellation risk after 5 consecutive years of non-use | Set by each national law |
| Madrid international registration | Each designated office applies its own; refusal notified within 12 or 18 months | Each designated office’s rules | Every 10 years at WIPO; dependent on the basic mark for the first 5 years |
Sources: EUIPO, Regulation (EU) 2017/1001, Andean Decision 486, the EU Latin America IP SME Helpdesk Mercosur factograph (May 2026) and the Madrid Protocol. The same factograph notes that Argentina and Paraguay use single-class trademark filings, while Brazil and Uruguay accept several classes per application: one more reason why “the same mark” means different files in each country.
What does a centralised operating model look like?
In practice, centralised management of an international trademark portfolio rests on six components:
- A golden record. One register of every application and registration, with owner, number, classes, specification, status and documents, reconciled against the official databases.
- A single docket. Every opposition window, office action, use deadline and renewal in one calendar, with reminders well ahead of the legal date.
- Use evidence by country. Dated invoices, catalogues, web captures and advertising filed per mark and market, ready for a non-use attack or an opposition.
- Watch and enforcement rules. A trademark watch on the key marks and clear thresholds for when to oppose, negotiate or ignore.
- Clean ownership. Registrations held by the right group company, with assignments and licences recorded where local law requires it.
- A correspondent network under one contract. Local agents still act before national offices, but they report to one coordinator, in one format, under one budget.
Madrid helps where it applies: through WIPO’s eMadrid workbench a holder can expand protection, change details and renew from one place. National registrations outside Madrid still need the local route, which is exactly where coordination adds most value.
Which global IP portfolio legal services should be bought centrally?
Not everything has to move. Our recommendation is to centralise strategy and control and to keep local execution where local law requires it.
- Centralise: clearance strategy, filing decisions, the golden record, docketing, renewals budget, watch, use evidence policy, ownership structure and portfolio pruning.
- Coordinate centrally, execute locally: national filings, responses to office actions, oppositions and cancellations before national offices, and recordals of assignments or licences.
- Keep connected to the centre: enforcement, customs recordals and litigation, which depend on the registrations being clean and current.
What this means for your business
- Run an audit: list every mark, owner, number, class, country and next deadline, and check them against the official registers.
- Fix ownership first. Registrations in the name of dissolved subsidiaries or distributors are the most expensive problem to discover during a sale or a dispute.
- Decide what to keep. Drop classes and countries with no business case at the next renewal, and fill the gaps where you sell without protection.
- Set a use evidence routine, at least yearly, for every mark that is past or approaching its use deadline.
- Consolidate the correspondent network under one coordinator and one reporting format.
If you want this done as a single project rather than country by country, our trademark portfolio management team can run the audit and keep the docket afterwards; for groups also reviewing licences, valuation or restructuring, our cross-border IP strategy service covers that side.
Where companies get portfolio management wrong
- Trusting each agent’s reminders. Reminders arrive in different formats and languages; one missed email can mean a lapsed registration that cannot be restored.
- Renewing everything by default. Paying to renew dead classes and markets wastes budget and does not protect against non-use attacks.
- Ignoring use until it is challenged. Evidence that was never collected cannot be rebuilt years later.
- Leaving marks in the wrong name. A distributor or former subsidiary as registered owner weakens enforcement and complicates transactions.
- Treating the Andean Community or Mercosur as one filing. Each country still requires its own registration.
Frequently asked questions
What is centralised trademark portfolio management?
It is an operating model in which one adviser keeps a single register of all the group’s trademarks, tracks every deadline in one calendar, sets filing and renewal strategy and coordinates the local agents who act before national offices. Local execution continues, but decisions, budget and reporting run through one point of contact.
Does centralising mean replacing our local agents?
Not necessarily. In countries where only local professionals can act before the office, local agents remain essential. What changes is who instructs them: a coordinator who knows the whole portfolio, applies the same criteria everywhere and reports to the group in one format, instead of each subsidiary managing its own agent.
How often should trademark use evidence be collected?
At least once a year for each mark and country, and before any renewal or opposition. Use periods differ: five years in the EU and Mercosur, three years in the Andean Community. Dated invoices, catalogues and web captures showing the mark on the registered goods are the evidence offices usually expect.
Can IP Global Guard take over our international trademark portfolio?
Yes. We audit the portfolio, build the golden record and docket, and manage filings, renewals and recordals, acting before the EUIPO, the OEPM and WIPO directly where our professionals are entitled and through qualified representatives otherwise, and coordinating local correspondents in Latin America and Africa from a single point of contact.
How IP Global Guard can take your portfolio under one roof
A trademark portfolio spread across many offices is only as strong as the deadline nobody checked. IP Global Guard, the IP services line of META Channel Corporation Limited, manages trademark portfolios across more than 25 jurisdictions in Europe, Latin America and Africa, with one strategy, one point of contact and one billing relationship.
Send us your current trademark list, even if it is incomplete, and the countries where you sell today. We will reconcile it with the official registers, flag the urgent deadlines and propose a management plan. Share your portfolio with our team.
This article is general information, not legal advice, and does not replace a review of your own portfolio.
Sources
- WIPO, Madrid System Yearly Review 2026 (13 May 2026)
- WIPO Lex, Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 on the European Union trade mark (14 June 2017)
- Andean Community, Decision 486, Common Industrial Property Regime (2000)
- Latin America IP SME Helpdesk, Mercosur factograph (European Commission, May 2026)
- WIPO Lex, Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement (as amended on 12 November 2007)
- WIPO, Manage your international registrations in eMadrid
- EUIPO, Opposition
