Madrid: a flourishing system? 29-09-2016 Progress on implementing the Madrid System for international trademark registration around the world presents a mixed picture, as Sarah Morgan reports. The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Madrid System is certainly thriving: in 2019, it recorded its 1.5 millionth international trademark registration, in the same year that the United Nations agency celebrated 30 years since the adoption of the Madrid Protocol, the cornerstone of the Madrid System. While the system has been in existence for more than 125 years, three-quarters of its current members joined it during the past three decades. Membership in the Madrid System quadrupled from just 25 members in 1988, to 107 members now. The protocol, which came into effect in 1996, allows for applicants to apply for or register a mark through an office of origin in their own country or region (if that is a signatory) and then designate international registrations based on that application or registration.