From CIPO to the SIC: protecting a Canadian trademark in Colombia through the Madrid Protocol or a direct filing

A trademark registered with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is protected in Canada only, so a Canadian brand needs its own registration with Colombia’s Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) before it is sold in Colombia.

Register a Canadian trademark in Colombia: key facts

Six steps from CIPO to the SIC

1. Search the SIC register for identical and similar marks, applications included, before any official fee is paid, since Article 277 of Decision 486 makes fees non-refundable once the procedure begins.
2. Decide the route: a CIPO international application naming Colombia when the Canadian base is secure, because the designation depends on it for five years under the Protocol’s Article 6(3), or a direct SIC application within six months of the first CIPO filing, which keeps that date under Article 9 of Decision 486.
3. File: CIPO certifies, through Madrid e-Filing, that the international application matches the Canadian base, and WIPO notifies Colombia, as the Protocol’s Article 3(1) provides; a direct application is lodged with the SIC with a Spanish petition and Nice classes, as Articles 7 and 151 of Decision 486 require.
4. Publication and opposition: the SIC publishes the application in the Industrial Property Gazette, after which anyone with a legitimate interest has thirty business days to oppose under Article 146 of Decision 486; refusals of a Madrid designation, including those that follow an opposition, come through WIPO under the Protocol’s Article 5.
5. Decision: the SIC rules by resolution on registrability and oppositions, and the applicant may ask it to reconsider, or appeal, in the ten days that Article 76 of Law 1437 of 2011 allows after notification; a designation that draws no refusal in time has the protection of a SIC registration under the Protocol’s Article 4(1)(a).
6. Maintenance: a direct registration lasts ten years from the grant and is renewed at the SIC, as Article 152 of Decision 486 provides; a designation is renewed with the international registration at WIPO, every ten years, under the Protocol’s Article 7; use in an Andean Community country is what defends either one against non-use cancellation under Article 165 of Decision 486.

The two routes are explained in detail below: the CIPO route under the Madrid Protocol and a direct SIC filing with your Canadian priority date.

The Trademarks Act gives the registered owner «the exclusive right to the use throughout Canada» of the mark (section 19), and in Colombia the right to use a mark exclusively is obtained by registering it with the SIC, as Article 154 of Decision 486 of the Andean Community provides. Since June 17, 2019, when the Madrid Protocol took effect for Canada, a Canadian owner has had two ways to reach that register: naming Colombia in an international application certified by CIPO, or applying to the SIC directly and claiming the Canadian filing date as priority, provided the SIC receives the application within six months of the first Canadian filing.

ADALET LEGAL S.A.S., a Colombian law firm, has written this page for Canadian companies that are starting to export to Colombia or to appoint a Colombian distributor or licensee, and for the Canadian trademark agents who manage their portfolios. The rules that apply to every foreign owner are set out in trademark registration in Colombia; this page deals with what changes when the first filing was made at CIPO, the corporate and notarial documents come from a Canadian province or from the federal government, and the owner already works with Canadian deadlines.

On the quotations: Canadian statutes come from the Justice Laws website of the Government of Canada, the practice of CIPO and of Global Affairs Canada from their own pages, and the treaties from WIPO Lex and from the HCCH, the Hague Conference on Private International Law. Decision 486 appears in its official Spanish, followed in brackets by an unofficial English version of our own.

2019 and 2024: the treaty dates behind the Canadian route

Canada joined two of the relevant treaties recently, and that explains much of what follows. The table gives the date on which each treaty took effect for each country, as WIPO Lex and, for the Apostille Convention, the HCCH status table showed them in October 2026.

What the dates mean. Paris has bound both countries since 1996, and it is the source of the six-month priority. Canada deposited its accessions to the Madrid Protocol and to the Nice Agreement on March 17, 2019, and both took effect three months later, so the CIPO route to Colombia is a recent option; WIPO Lex lists 117 members of the Protocol. Colombia is not a party to Nice, yet goods and services are classified there under the Nice Classification, because Decision 486 makes the Andean countries use it (Article 151). Canada acceded to the Apostille Convention on May 12, 2023, with effect from January 11, 2024; an accession operates only towards states that raised no objection within six months (Article 12), and the HCCH table records Canada’s accession without any objection, so the Convention applies between Canada and Colombia.

Through CIPO: certification at no charge, in English or French

CIPO is the Office of origin for Canadian owners, and its guidance sets the conditions. An international application can only be built on a Canadian application or registration filed first; CIPO accepts it from a Canadian citizen, a resident of Canada or a business with an industrial or commercial establishment in Canada (the Protocol speaks of nationality, domicile or an establishment that is «real and effective», Article 2(1)(i)); and it must be filed through CIPO’s Madrid eFiling system. The request is written in English or in French and stays in that language from start to finish, because, as CIPO’s guide warns about an AIR (its abbreviation for an application for international registration), «WIPO will not accept an AIR that uses a combination of both languages». The mark must be identical to the Canadian one, and CIPO certifies that the particulars correspond to the Canadian base before forwarding the application (Protocol, Article 3(1)).

Unlike some other offices of origin, CIPO charges nothing for that step: «CIPO does not require a fee for the certification of an application for international registration». The fees go to WIPO, in Swiss francs, inside Madrid eFiling: a basic fee of 653 francs (903 when the mark is shown in colour), plus Colombia’s individual fee, which the WIPO table of individual fees, updated on October 8, 2026, puts at 276 francs for one class and 138 for each additional one. When WIPO receives the certified application within two months of the date CIPO received it, the international registration carries CIPO’s receipt date (Article 3(4)); from that date the mark has the same protection in Colombia as if it had been deposited with the SIC (Article 4(1)(a)). Colombia can also be added to an existing international registration at a later stage, but that extension takes effect only from its recording in the International Register (Article 3ter(2)).

Section 45 and the five years tied to your Canadian base

Until the international registration is five years old, protection in Colombia depends on the Canadian base. If within that time the base application or registration is withdrawn, lapses, is renounced or ends in a final decision of rejection, revocation, cancellation or invalidation, for all or some of its goods and services, protection in Colombia shrinks or ends to the same extent; the result is the same when a proceeding against the base starts within the five years and is decided against it afterwards (Protocol, Article 6(3)). CIPO describes its own duty: as Office of origin it reports to WIPO any change in the scope of the Canadian base, «such as the deletion of goods or services», during those five years, and also when a proceeding begun in that period, «such as an opposition», changes the scope later.

Canadian owners should read section 45 of the Trademarks Act with that window in mind. The section opens «After three years beginning on the day on which a trademark is registered»: from then on, any person who pays the prescribed fee can have the Registrar send the owner a notice, and the Registrar may also send one on its own initiative; the owner has three months to answer with an affidavit or statutory declaration showing whether the mark was in use in Canada in the three years before the notice (section 45(1)). Without that use, and without special circumstances excusing its absence, the registration is liable to be expunged or amended (section 45(3)). If that happens while the international registration is under five years old, the Colombian designation loses the same goods. A base registered in Canada for goods not yet sold there is the typical case, and for those goods a direct SIC filing deserves a look.

Should CIPO have the international registration cancelled, the Colombian date is not necessarily lost. An application for the same mark lodged with the SIC by the former holder within three months of that cancellation, covering only goods and services that the Colombian designation actually included and meeting Colombian requirements and fees, gets the international registration date, or the date of the later designation of Colombia, as its filing date, and keeps any priority (Article 9quinquies). For the trade-offs between both routes, see Madrid Protocol or national filing in Colombia.

Direct SIC filing with your Canadian priority date

Because Canada and Colombia are both bound by the Paris Convention, the first application for a mark validly filed at CIPO gives its applicant, or whoever succeeds to it, six months that cannot be extended to apply for the same mark at the SIC and keep the Canadian date (Decision 486, Article 9). The SIC then needs a declaration identifying the Canadian application by its filing date, by the office that received it and by its number when available; a copy of that application certified by CIPO; a certificate of its filing date issued by CIPO; and payment of the SIC’s priority fee, rounded to USD 96 per class in 2026. These may be lodged together with the Colombian application or afterwards, but the outer limit is «nueve meses» [nine months] from the Canadian filing date (Article 10), and missing a deadline, a document or the fee means losing the priority (Article 11).

Canada adds a language question. CIPO documents may be in English or in French, and Article 8 requires documents before the Andean offices to «presentarse en idioma castellano» [be filed in Spanish], with a simple translation when they are not, unless the office waives it. A certified copy in French needs that translation just as much as one in English. On the Madrid route there is no priority file to assemble, because Article 4(2) of the Protocol gives each international registration the Paris priority and spares it the paperwork that Section D of Article 4 of the Paris Convention would otherwise require.

Three years without use in each country, counted in different markets

Section 45 has taught Canadian owners to think in three-year blocks: the question in that proceeding is whether the mark «was in use in Canada at any time during the three-year period immediately preceding the date of the notice». Colombia also counts three years, but its market is the Andean Community of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. When an interested party asks for it, the SIC cancels a registration that, without justified reason, was not used in any member country by the owner, by a licensee or by someone else the owner authorized, for three consecutive years before the action is filed, and nobody can bring that action until three years have passed from notice of the resolution that exhausted the administrative registration procedure (Decision 486, Article 165).

Export use runs in one direction in each law. Under Canadian law, a mark «marked in Canada on goods or on the packages in which they are contained is, when the goods are exported from Canada, deemed to be used in Canada» (Trademarks Act, section 4(3)), so marked goods shipped to Colombia also support the Canadian registration. Article 166 of Decision 486 has an export rule too, but it covers a mark that distinguishes only goods exported from an Andean country, which does not help a Canadian exporter; for the Colombian registration, what matters is that goods bearing the mark are placed on the market or available there «en la cantidad y del modo que normalmente corresponde» [in the quantity and manner that normally apply], given the nature of the goods and how they are sold. Sales in Colombia or in another Andean country by you, by an authorized importer or distributor or by a licensee count; sales in Canada do not.

Keep the Colombian invoices and the written authorization of whoever sells there. In 2026 the SIC charges about USD 846 to cancel one class for non-use. How the cancellation action works is covered in trademark non-use cancellation in Colombia; contracts with Colombian importers and licensees, in trademark licensing and franchising in Colombia.

Ten-year terms and six months of grace on each side

The Canadian Trademarks Act keeps a registration on the register «for an initial period of 10 years» from the registration date, with renewal periods of 10 years each time the renewal fee is paid (section 46(1)), and the period for paying begins at least six months before expiry and ends no earlier than six months after it (section 46(6)). Colombian law is close: a registration lasts ten years from the date it was granted and can be renewed for successive ten-year periods (Decision 486, Article 152). Renewal is requested within the six months before expiry; after expiry, the owner, or anyone with a legitimate interest, still has a six-month grace period, and while it runs «el registro de marca mantendrá su plena vigencia» [the trademark registration remains fully in force] (Article 153). Renewal requires no proof of use and keeps the terms of the original registration, although the owner may narrow the goods or services.

In 2026 the SIC charges about USD 231 to renew one class within the ordinary term, about USD 114 for each additional class in the same file and about USD 316 for one class renewed during the grace period. Under Madrid, the Colombian protection is renewed together with the international registration, at WIPO, for ten years at a time, with six months of grace against a surcharge (Protocol, Article 7); WIPO’s table sets Colombia’s individual renewal fee at 151 Swiss francs for one class and 74 for each additional class. Because the Canadian and the Colombian registrations do not usually share a start date, each one needs its own reminder.

Apostilles for Canadian documents: federal or provincial authority

Since January 11, 2024, Colombia must exempt Canadian public documents from legalisation, and the only formality it may impose to prove that the signature is genuine, the capacity in which the signatory acted and the identity of any seal or stamp is an apostille from one of the authorities that the issuing state has designated as competent (Apostille Convention, Articles 2 and 3). Canada designated as competent authorities «the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development of Canada», known as Global Affairs Canada, and authorities of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec, according to the HCCH.

Which one depends on the document. Global Affairs Canada handles documents «issued by the Government of Canada» and documents issued or notarized in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon. Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan apostille documents issued in their own territory. A document notarized in Alberta, Ontario or Saskatchewan goes to that province wherever it was issued, while British Columbia and Quebec authenticate a notarized document only when the original was issued in the province. Global Affairs Canada also asks for an original, recognized signature on a paper document.

Older authentications are not enough. Before Canada joined the Convention, Global Affairs Canada authenticated documents with a red stamp, and for use in a member country of the Convention it now says that «you must submit a new authentication request with a clean version of your documents». A power of attorney or corporate certificate stamped for Colombia before 2024 should therefore go back for an apostille in a clean version.

An apostille covers the signature, the signer’s capacity and any seal; it does not translate the document. Documents in English or French therefore reach the SIC with a simple Spanish translation unless it waives one (Decision 486, Article 8). Ahead of any signature we tell you which documents your route needs, where each one should be notarized and which authority apostilles it; for powers of attorney granted abroad, see power of attorney for Colombia.

The SIC’s 2026 fees in US dollars

Official fees at the SIC are fixed in Colombian pesos by Resolution 6167 of January 30, 2026. At the TRM of COP 3,174.67 to the US dollar, the market representative rate that datos.gov.co publishes as valid from October 17 to 19, 2026, and rounded to whole dollars, these are the online-channel fees a Canadian owner is most likely to meet:

With a Madrid designation there is no SIC filing fee: Colombia is paid through WIPO’s individual fee, and CIPO adds nothing for certification. Resolution 75972, dated September 23, 2026, repeals Resolution 6167 and governs from January 1, 2027, so the amounts above apply until December 31, 2026. Our professional fees are separate from these figures: trademark matters are handled for a flat fee, confirmed in writing the day you ask, and oppositions and appeals are quoted on their own.

Timelines here come from our practice, not from any rule: a direct SIC application is usually decided within six to ten months if nobody opposes it; if an opposition is filed, around twelve to thirteen months; and appealing a refusal adds roughly eleven months. We published a study of SIC timing, in Spanish, measured on a sample of real files.

The lawyer in charge

Andrés Felipe López Gutiérrez, founding partner of the firm, takes charge of each Canadian matter: he goes through the search results with you, settles the route with you and is your contact from the first message to the closing of the file. Across more than 20 years of practice he has led the filing and defence of more than 3,000 trademarks at the SIC, and he is responsible for what the trademark guides on this site say on the law. His postgraduate studies are a specialisation in Commercial Law at Universidad del Rosario and another in Public Management and Administrative Institutions at Universidad de los Andes.

In trademarks he handles searches for earlier marks and registrability studies, SIC filings, oppositions on either side, appeals against refusals, cancellations for non-use, renewals, assignments, coexistence agreements, the watch of whole portfolios and Madrid Protocol work. In commercial and corporate law he structures distribution, franchise and supply agreements, sets up and restructures companies and prepares shareholder agreements, the contracts that usually come with a Colombian distributor or subsidiary.

How we work on a Canadian file

We begin by searching the SIC register for marks identical or similar to yours and give you a written registrability opinion before you pay any official fee. Next comes the route: a CIPO international application naming Colombia, the addition of Colombia to an international registration that already exists, or a direct SIC application claiming Canadian priority while the six months last, in every case with a specification of goods and services written for the SIC. After filing we follow the application to its decision and check with you any similar Colombian application published in the meantime, while there is still time to oppose: thirty days from publication, plus thirty more, granted once on request, to bring the evidence (Decision 486, Article 146). Owners with the same mark in Peru, Ecuador or Bolivia should read Andean trademark opposition in Colombia; Canadian trademark agents who need a correspondent in Colombia will find our terms for that work in Colombia trademark agent for foreign IP firms.

Some of this needs no lawyer. The SIC’s public database is enough for a first availability check, explained step by step in Colombia trademark search. On the Madrid route, if WIPO receives no refusal from Colombia within the Protocol’s time limit, the mark enjoys in Colombia the protection of a mark registered by the SIC (Article 4(1)(a)). Colombian counsel becomes necessary when a provisional refusal or an opposition arrives, because the reply must be drafted in Spanish and follow Colombian procedure; that stage is the subject of provisional refusal in Colombia.

This page relies on sources read in October 2026. Canada: sections 4, 19, 45 and 46 of the Trademarks Act (Justice Laws website), CIPO’s page on international trademarks under the Madrid Protocol, its Madrid eFiling guide, and the document authentication requirements published by Global Affairs Canada. Treaties: the Madrid Protocol text and the membership records for it, for Paris and for Nice on WIPO Lex, the schedule of Madrid fees and the individual fee table published by WIPO, and, from the HCCH, the Apostille Convention, its status table and Canada’s competent authorities. Colombia and the Andean Community: Decision 486, the Andean Community’s own description of its members, SIC fee Resolutions 6167 and 75972, both of 2026, and the datos.gov.co TRM series.

Frequently asked questions

Is a Canadian trademark valid in other countries?

No. Section 19 of the Trademarks Act gives the owner of a Canadian registration the exclusive right to use the mark throughout Canada; it says nothing about other countries. In Colombia the exclusive right arises when the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) registers the mark (Decision 486, Article 154). A Canadian owner can obtain it by naming Colombia in an international application certified by CIPO under the Madrid Protocol, or by applying to the SIC directly and keeping the Canadian filing date as priority, as long as the Colombian filing comes no later than six months after it.

When did Canada join the Madrid Protocol?

Canada deposited its accession on March 17, 2019, and the Protocol has bound Canada since June 17, 2019, according to WIPO Lex; Colombia has been bound since August 29, 2012. Since then, CIPO has accepted international applications from Canadian citizens, residents of Canada and businesses with an industrial or commercial establishment in Canada, based on a Canadian application or registration, and Colombia can be designated in them. WIPO Lex listed 117 members of the Protocol in October 2026.

Can CIPO send my trademark application to Colombia?

Yes, as Office of origin under the Madrid Protocol. The international application is filed in CIPO’s Madrid eFiling system, in English or in French but never in a mix of both, and must match the Canadian application or registration it is based on. CIPO charges no fee for certifying it; WIPO collects, in Swiss francs, its basic fee (653, or 903 with colour) and Colombia’s individual fee (276 for one class and 138 for each further class). If WIPO receives the certified application within two months of CIPO’s receipt, the international registration bears CIPO’s receipt date (Madrid Protocol, Article 3(4)).

Does selling in Canada keep a Colombian trademark registration alive?

No. On request of any interested party, the SIC cancels a registration if no Andean Community country (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador or Peru) saw the mark used, without a justified reason, during the three consecutive years preceding the request, whether by the owner, a licensee or another authorized person (Decision 486, Article 165). Sales in Canada do not count there. They matter in Canada, where section 45 of the Trademarks Act asks whether the mark was in use in Canada in the three years before the notice, and where goods marked in Canada and then exported are deemed to be used in Canada (section 4(3)). For the Colombian registration, what counts is the sale of goods under the mark in Colombia or in another Andean Community country.

Is there a grace period to renew a trademark in Colombia, as in Canada?

Yes. A Colombian registration lasts ten years from the grant and renews for successive ten-year periods (Decision 486, Article 152). Renewal is requested in the six months before expiry, and the owner still has six months after expiry, during which the registration stays fully in force (Article 153); the SIC charges a higher fee in that period. In Canada, the renewal period begins at least six months before expiry and ends no earlier than six months after it (Trademarks Act, section 46(6)). In 2026 the SIC charges about USD 231 to renew one class on time and about USD 316 in the grace period. A Colombian designation obtained through Madrid is renewed at WIPO together with the international registration (Madrid Protocol, Article 7).

Does Global Affairs Canada apostille every Canadian document?

No. Global Affairs Canada handles documents issued by the Government of Canada and documents issued or notarized in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon. Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan have their own competent authorities for documents issued there, and a document notarized in Alberta, Ontario or Saskatchewan goes to that province whatever its origin. Colombia may require nothing more than that apostille (Apostille Convention, Articles 2 and 3), which the HCCH status table shows in force for Canada since January 11, 2024, and documents in English or French go to the SIC with a simple Spanish translation unless it waives it (Decision 486, Article 8).

Do Canada and Colombia use the same trademark classes?

Yes, the Nice Classification, by different paths. Canada has been a party to the Nice Agreement since June 17, 2019; Colombia is not a party, but Decision 486 requires the Andean countries to classify goods and services under it (Article 151). On the Madrid route, WIPO checks that the goods and services are grouped in the correct Nice classes, and CIPO certifies that the international application corresponds to the Canadian base (Madrid Protocol, Article 3(1)). The classes do not settle whether two marks conflict: under the same Article 151, they do not determine whether goods or services are similar.

Contact us

Send us on WhatsApp your mark, its Canadian application or registration number (or your international registration number) and what you plan to sell in Colombia; we will tell you which route fits and send you a flat-fee quote the same day.

Related pages

Trademark registration in Colombia · Madrid Protocol or national filing in Colombia · Provisional refusal under the Madrid Protocol in Colombia · Andean trademark opposition in Colombia · Colombia trademark agent for foreign IP firms · Power of attorney for Colombia · Trademark non-use cancellation in Colombia · Trademark licensing and franchising in Colombia · Registering an Indian trademark in Colombia · Registering a Chinese trademark in Colombia · Registering an EU trademark in Colombia · Registering a UK trademark in Colombia