The short answer, and the one that determines how a regional filing programme is built: Sri Lanka is not a member of the Madrid Protocol. There is no international registration designating Sri Lanka, and a Sri Lankan business cannot use a Sri Lankan mark as the basis for an international application.
What Sri Lanka does have is the Paris Convention, which it joined in 1952, and that is where the planning value sits.
Quick reference
| Paris Convention | Member — in force since 1952 |
| WTO | Member |
| Madrid Protocol | Not a member |
| Route in | A national application |
| Route out | National applications in each country of interest |
| Priority period | Six months from the first Convention filing |
| Priority declaration | Appended to the application |
| Priority certificate | Within three months of the Sri Lankan application |
| Exhibition protection | Six months from first exhibition at an official international exhibition |
Filing into Sri Lanka
A foreign brand owner protects a mark in Sri Lanka by filing a national application at the National Intellectual Property Office, through a local registered agent, with an address for service in Sri Lanka. One class per application.
Where there is an earlier Convention filing, priority is available. Section 107 requires:
- the Sri Lankan application to be filed within six months of the earlier Convention application; and
- a written declaration appended to the application, stating the date and number of the earlier application, the name of the applicant and the country where it was filed; and
- a certified copy of that earlier application, furnished within three months of the date of the later Sri Lankan application.
The consequence of getting the priority wrong is bounded but real. Where the applicant fails to comply, the Director-General does not refuse the application — the Act simply directs that no reference is made to the priority claimed. You keep the application and lose the date.
Where the applicant does comply, the Director-General records the priority in connection with the registration, and it appears on the register.
See filing a trademark in Sri Lanka.
The exhibition route
Less used, and genuinely useful where it fits. Section 108 covers an applicant who has exhibited goods bearing the mark, or rendered services under it, at an official or officially recognised international exhibition.
Apply within six months of the date the goods were first exhibited or the services first rendered, and on request the application is deemed to have been made on that date.
The evidence is a certificate from the appropriate authority of the exhibition stating the date the mark was first used there in connection with those goods or services. The Director-General may require a certified translation of that certificate within three months if it is not in the language of the application.
The protection does not stack: section 108(3) provides that it does not extend to any other period of priority claimed.
Filing out of Sri Lanka
A Sri Lankan business expanding abroad has no central route. Each country of interest needs its own application, filed through local agents, under local law.
What the Paris Convention gives is the same six-month priority in the other direction. A Sri Lankan application establishes a date that can be claimed in any other Convention country for six months, which is usually the window in which the expansion plan is still being settled.
The practical advice is to decide the first wave of countries within that six months, because the priority date is free protection against anything filed in the gap and it cannot be recovered afterwards.
Why this matters for a South Asian programme
The region does not behave as a block, and a programme built on an assumption that it does will have gaps.
- India — Madrid member since 2013.
- Pakistan — Madrid member since 24 May 2021, with an 18-month refusal period and an individual fee.
- Sri Lanka — not a Madrid member.
- Bangladesh — not a Madrid member.
- Nepal — not a Madrid member.
So an international registration can reach India and Pakistan. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal each need a direct national filing, each through local agents, each on its own timetable and its own term.
Three of the five are on single-class filing, and the terms differ — Sri Lanka runs ten years from the application date, Bangladesh starts at seven years and renews at ten, Nepal runs seven years. A single regional diary with one set of assumptions will be wrong in most of these countries.
What the Paris Convention does beyond priority
Two things in the Sri Lankan Act depend on Convention membership rather than on a Sri Lankan registration.
Well-known marks. A mark well known in Sri Lanka blocks a later application for identical or similar goods without any Sri Lankan registration. See well-known trademarks in Sri Lanka.
The unauthorised agent’s filing. Section 104(1)(f) makes a mark inadmissible where it is filed by the agent or representative of a third party who owns the mark in another country, without that owner’s authorisation, unless the agent justifies the action — the Paris Convention protection against the distributor who registers your brand locally.
Both are available to a foreign owner who has never filed in Sri Lanka. They are not a substitute for filing, but they are what you have if the distributor got there first.
Practical sequence for a brand entering the region
- Fix the priority date with the first filing, wherever that is.
- Decide the regional list within six months, since that is the whole of the priority window.
- Use Madrid where it reaches — India and Pakistan — if an international registration is already part of the structure.
- File nationally in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, through local agents, class by class.
- Diary each country separately, because the terms and renewal mechanics do not match.
Frequently asked questions
Can I designate Sri Lanka in a Madrid application? No. Sri Lanka is not a member of the Madrid Protocol, so protection requires a national application.
Is Sri Lanka in the Paris Convention? Yes, since 1952, so six-month Convention priority is available in both directions.
How long do I have to claim priority in Sri Lanka? Six months from the first Convention filing, with the declaration appended to the application and the certified copy furnished within three months of the Sri Lankan filing.
What happens if the priority certificate is late? The application proceeds without any reference to the priority claimed. You lose the earlier date, not the application.
Which South Asian countries are in the Madrid System? India and Pakistan. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal are not, so each needs a direct national filing.
My distributor registered my brand in Sri Lanka. Does Paris membership help? Yes. A mark filed by an agent or representative of the foreign owner without authorisation is inadmissible unless the agent justifies the filing, and that ground does not require you to hold a Sri Lankan registration.
Useful official resources
- National Intellectual Property Office of Sri Lanka
- WIPO Paris Convention — contracting parties
- Intellectual Property Act, No. 36 of 2003 — sections 104, 107, 108, 110
See our related notes on filing a trademark in Sri Lanka, well-known trademarks and trademark protection in Sri Lanka.
Planning a South Asian filing programme that has to cover Madrid and non-Madrid countries? Talk to us.