Worldwide brand registration for all products and services? A 40 million CZK investment

Budějovický Budvar cannot use the Budweiser brand in the United States. In Europe, things are different. In Germany they are allowed to sell their beer, but not in Spain, because there, just as in the US, their international competitor Anheuser-Busch InBev acquired the designation.

This David and Goliath feud between the breweries is a good illustration of the limited territorial nature of intellectual property. Its protections always only apply to a specific area. If a dispute arises, each individual territory must be fought over.

In the case of Budvar, this decades-long legal battle was initially focused on the most important markets, which were Europe and the United States. Then it moved to developing economies and after South America, it is gradually moving to Africa – Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria. Only the largest companies and conglomerates – whose products or services have a global reach – register their trademarks worldwide. This is because registration only makes sense if you actually want to use your brand in the given market.

One also has to take into account the costs of trademark protection. When we were budgeting trademark registration in 160 countries for 45 internationally recognised classes of goods and services, we arrived at a figure of 40 million CZK. For a single product in one class we arrived at about ten million CZK. However, this total only applies if everything goes well. As soon as there is any dispute, whether with the registering authority or some other player on the market filing an objection, the costs will understandably grow.

Additionally, in some countries it’s enough to submit a single application for all classes, but in others they require a separate application for each class. This means that while you only have to register one trademark in the Czech Republic, protecting all 45 classes of goods and services, in Pakistan you have to fill in 45 applications. Each of these contains information about the applicant, what they are registering and what the mark looks like.