The Trade Marks (International Registration) Order 2008 has been laid before Parliament. The 2008 Order will come into effect on 1 October 2008. It governs international trade mark registrations designating the UK under the Madrid Protocol and replaces the Trade Marks (International Registration) Order 1996 which has been amended five times in the past decade or so, usually following changes to UK trade mark rules.
The Israel Trademark ordinance was updated last year to make it compatible with Madrid. However, due to a series of delays, Madrid has not been implemented in Israel. The Israel Trademark Department has made much progress in streamlining their procedures and mostly issues a decision within 12 months. Graphical elements of existing marks and applications have been catalogued and I have already experimented with a prototype search engine for trademarks that has not yet been made available to private practitioners, but is to be launched shortly.
