Many companies, and many trademark practitioners, are unaware of an extremely helpful service which the World Intellectual Property Organization makes available free of charge. The Madrid Electronic Alert (“MEA”) system is a free-of-charge “watch service” designed to inform anyone interested in monitoring the status of particular Madrid Protocol (international) trademark applications. This is particularly helpful for monitoring Madrid Protocol trademark filings of competitors and adversaries.
As an MEA subscriber, you receive daily e-mail alerts when changes are recorded in the International Trademark Register in the international trademark applications (“international registrations”) that you have chosen to monitor.
If you already have a WIPO user ID and password, then to use MEA you simply log in and go to the MEA web page, where you type in the international registration numbers that you wish to follow. The MEA system will send you an email message each time a change concerning one of them is recorded in the International Register. Each such email message provides a hyperlink to ROMARIN, the International Trademark Register database, where you can see further details on the change.
If you don’t yet have a WIPO user ID and password, then you might as well get one. You’ll need one sooner or later, whether it is to use the MEA system or any of the many other very helpful online services provided by WIPO.