A trademark registered with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) protects your brand in China, and its protection ends at the Chinese border. The Paris Convention, to which both China and Colombia belong, states the rule plainly: «A mark duly registered in a country of the Union shall be regarded as independent of marks registered in the other countries of the Union, including the country of origin» (Article 6(3)). In Colombia, exclusive rights over a mark arise from its registration by the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC), the national office that applies Decision 486 of the Andean Community (Article 154). A Chinese company has two ways in: an international application under the Madrid Protocol, sent through CNIPA with Colombia designated, or a national application at the SIC, which keeps the date of the first Chinese application when it is lodged no more than six months after it.
This guide, prepared by ADALET LEGAL S.A.S., a Colombian law firm, follows a brand from its CNIPA filing to the Colombian register. It is written for factories, exporters and brand owners in mainland China whose products reach Colombian buyers through an importer, a distributor, a local subsidiary or an online marketplace, and for the trademark agencies in China that look after their filings abroad. The rules that apply to any foreign applicant are explained in trademark registration in Colombia.
On quotations: Andean law exists only in Spanish, so Decision 486 is quoted in the original, followed by our unofficial English translation in brackets; the treaties are quoted in English, as published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and by the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).
China and Colombia in the trademark treaties
Five treaties decide how a Chinese brand reaches Colombia, and China is bound by more of them than Colombia is. Each date below is the day the treaty took effect for that country, checked in October 2026 in WIPO Lex and, for the Apostille Convention, in the HCCH status table.
| Treaty | China | Colombia |
|---|---|---|
| Madrid Agreement (Marks) | October 4, 1989 | not a party |
| Madrid Protocol, international registration of marks | December 1, 1995 | August 29, 2012 |
| Paris Convention, right of priority | March 19, 1985 | September 3, 1996 |
| Nice Agreement, classification of goods and services | August 9, 1994 | not a party |
| Apostille Convention, The Hague, 1961 | November 7, 2023 | January 30, 2001 |
Two consequences follow from the table. Between China and Colombia only the Madrid Protocol can apply, because Colombia never joined the Madrid Agreement; that is why a designation of Colombia from China pays Colombia’s own individual fee, as explained below. And although Colombia is not a party to the Nice Agreement, it classifies goods and services under the Nice Classification, because Article 151 of Decision 486 requires every Andean country to use it.
Designating Colombia from China under the Madrid Protocol
A company that is Chinese by nationality, by domicile or by having a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in China, and that has applied for or registered its mark at CNIPA, can extend that mark to Colombia through the International Bureau of WIPO (Protocol, Article 2(1)(i)). CNIPA acts as the Office of origin: it confirms that what the international application states matches the Chinese basic application or registration, and it adds the date and number of that Chinese filing (Article 3(1)). CNIPA announced in January 2022 that all ten Madrid transactions it handles for Chinese applicants, including the international application, renewal, transfer and cancellation, can be filed through its online service system.
WIPO charges its fees in Swiss francs. Its Schedule of Fees, in force since February 1, 2023, sets a basic fee of 653 Swiss francs for a mark reproduced without colour and 903 for a mark with any colour. Colombia then collects its individual fee, which WIPO’s table, updated on October 8, 2026, puts at 276 Swiss francs for the first class and 138 for every further class. That individual fee takes the place of the complementary fee, and if Colombia is the sole designation, classes above three carry no supplementary fee (Article 8(7)(a)). In WIPO fees alone, a mark without colour costs 929 Swiss francs in one class and 1,205 in three.
The SIC then examines the designation under Decision 486, as it would a mark filed directly with it. A refusal, whether it comes from the SIC’s own examination or from an opposition, reaches you through WIPO, and the reply is due under Colombian procedure and in Spanish; that stage is explained in provisional refusal in Colombia.
During the first five years after the international registration date, what happens at CNIPA decides what survives in Colombia. Under Article 6(3), the Colombian protection can no longer be invoked, even after a transfer of the international registration and to the extent of the goods and services affected, if within those five years the Chinese basic application or registration is withdrawn, lapses, is renounced or is the subject of a final decision of rejection, revocation, cancellation or invalidation. The result is the same when an appeal against a refusal of the Chinese application, an action seeking its withdrawal or the revocation, cancellation or invalidation of the Chinese registration, or an opposition to the Chinese application, started inside the five years, ends in a final decision against the basic mark after they have run, or when the basic mark is withdrawn or renounced after the five years while one of those proceedings, started inside them, is still pending. A CNIPA application that is still under examination, or that faces an opposition or an invalidation request in China, carries that risk to Colombia. Both routes are compared, along with what can be saved through transformation when an international registration is cancelled, in Madrid Protocol or national filing in Colombia.
Marks written in Chinese characters
Where a mark includes Chinese characters, Rule 9(4)(a)(xii) of the Regulations under the Protocol requires the international application to render that part in Latin characters, with the transliteration following the phonetics of the application’s language. Words that can be translated may also be given in translation, in all three Madrid languages, English, French and Spanish, or in only one or two of them, under Rule 9(4)(b)(iii). The transliteration is an indication in the application, not a second mark.
What Colombian buyers will read on the packaging and in the shops is what needs protection in Colombia, so decide before filing whether the brand will be sold there in characters, in a Latin-script name such as its pinyin or an English name, or in both, and register the form you will use. Article 166 of Decision 486 tolerates use that departs from the registered form only in details or elements that leave its distinctive character intact; whether a Latin-script name sold under a registration of characters stays within that margin is a question better settled by registering it than argued in a cancellation for non-use.
A brand that is already well known in the Andean market is also protected against copies in another script. Article 136, literal h, bars the registration of signs that «constituyan una reproducción, imitación, traducción, transliteración o transcripción, total o parcial, de un signo distintivo notoriamente conocido cuyo titular sea un tercero» [amount to a full or partial reproduction, imitation, translation, transliteration or transcription of a well-known distinctive sign belonging to someone else], for any goods or services, when using them could create a risk of confusion or association with that owner or its products, take unfair advantage of the sign’s prestige, or dilute its distinctiveness or its commercial or advertising value. But a sign is well known only if the relevant sector recognizes it as such in a member country of the Andean Community (Article 224), so what has to be proved is recognition in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador or Bolivia; fame in China does not meet that test by itself.
Your CNIPA list of goods is not the Colombian test
The goods and services of a Madrid application are grouped by Nice class, but Article 4(1)(b) of the Protocol provides that «The indication of classes of goods and services provided for in Article 3 shall not bind the Contracting Parties with regard to the determination of the scope of the protection of the mark». Decision 486 says the same for Colombia: the Nice classes do not decide whether two products or services are similar (Article 151). However the list was drafted for CNIPA, the question in Colombia is whether what you sell there is similar to what an earlier Colombian mark covers, whatever the class. That is why we also search the SIC register in related classes, and why the international application can carry, for Colombia, a list limited to what you will actually sell there (Rule 9(4)(a)(xiii)).
Filing directly with the SIC and keeping your CNIPA date
On the national route, the Chinese company itself is the applicant before the SIC, normally represented by a Colombian lawyer under a power of attorney. The Colombian file does not depend on what later happens at CNIPA, and the Colombian list of goods can be written for Colombia from the outset. Since both countries belong to the Paris Convention, the first application validly lodged at CNIPA gives the applicant, or its successor in title, a right of priority to seek protection in Colombia for the same subject matter, as long as the Colombian application is lodged within six months of the Chinese one, a period that cannot be extended (Decision 486, Article 9).
That priority has a paper cost on the Chinese side. Article 10 requires a declaration giving the date, the office and, if known, the number of the CNIPA application, together with a copy of that application certified by CNIPA and a certificate of its filing date issued by CNIPA. Declaration and documents go in together with the Colombian application or separately, but never later than nine months from the Chinese filing date, which cannot be extended either; the SIC charges the priority claim per class. Because those documents are in Chinese, they need a simple Spanish translation unless the SIC waives it (Article 8), and a missed term, document or fee costs the priority (Article 11). The Madrid route spares you that paperwork: under Article 4(2) of the Protocol, every international registration enjoys the Paris priority «without it being necessary to comply with the formalities prescribed in Section D of that Article».
Our recommendation between the two routes, given in writing before anything is filed, weighs how secure the CNIPA mark is today, how many other Madrid members you plan to cover, and how much the product list for Colombia will differ from the one filed in China.
If your importer or distributor files your brand first
The local agent who registers its supplier’s brand is an old enough problem to have its own article in the Paris Convention. If the agent or representative of the owner of a mark applies to register it in its own name without the owner’s authorization, «the proprietor shall be entitled to oppose the registration applied for or demand its cancellation or, if the law of the country so allows, the assignment in his favor of the said registration, unless such agent or representative justifies his action» (Article 6septies(1)), and each country may set «an equitable time limit» for exercising those rights (Article 6septies(3)).
Decision 486 bars the registration of signs whose use in trade would unduly affect a third party’s right, in particular a sign identical or similar to someone else’s distinctive sign, where in the circumstances its use could lead to confusion or association, if the applicant is or has been a representative, a distributor or a person expressly authorized by the owner of the sign protected in Colombia or abroad (Article 136, literal d). It also lets the office refuse a registration when it has reasonable indications that it was sought «para perpetrar, facilitar o consolidar un acto de competencia desleal» [to commit, facilitate or consolidate an act of unfair competition] (Article 137). What you can do depends on how far the other party has got:
- Application published, not yet decided: anyone with a legitimate interest may file, once, a reasoned opposition within thirty days after publication, with one additional term of thirty days to submit the evidence if the opponent asks for it (Article 146). Terms subject to publication run from the day after it, and terms set in days are business days (Articles 4 and 5).
- Registration already granted: relative nullity. Under Article 172, the competent national authority shall declare, of its own motion or at the request of any person, «la nulidad relativa de un registro de marca cuando se hubiese concedido en contravención de lo dispuesto en el artículo 136 o cuando éste se hubiera efectuado de mala fe» [the relative nullity of a trademark registration when it was granted in breach of Article 136 or when it was made in bad faith], and «Esta acción prescribirá a los cinco años contados desde la fecha de concesión del registro impugnado» [This action shall lapse five years after the date on which the challenged registration was granted].
- Identical or similar mark already registered, or first applied for, in Peru, Ecuador or Bolivia: an Andean opposition under Article 147, for goods or services where the use of the other mark could mislead the public; the opponent shows that it really intends to trade in Colombia by filing its own Colombian application together with the opposition. See Andean trademark opposition in Colombia.
- Distributor willing to hand the brand back: the transfer must be in writing and recorded with the SIC, because under Article 161 «La falta de registro ocasionará que la transferencia no surta efectos frente a terceros» [Failure to register shall mean that the transfer has no effect against third parties], and the office may refuse to record it if it would cause a risk of confusion.
The simplest answer comes earlier: file in your own name before you appoint anyone in Colombia, and state in the distribution agreement that the brand remains yours. Distribution and licence agreements are part of our work; see trademark licensing and franchising. Copying that is not a registration problem is handled through unfair competition claims.
Goods made in China and sold in Colombia: what counts as use
A Colombian registration has to be put to use. At the request of an interested person, the SIC cancels it if, without justified reason, nobody used the mark in at least one Andean member country during the three consecutive years before the action, whether the owner, a licensee or another person authorized to use it (Article 165). No such action may start until three years after notification of the resolution that ends the registration procedure in the administrative stage; an owner who proves that non-use came from an act of God or force majeure, among other causes, keeps the registration; and where only some goods or services went unused, the list is cut back to the rest, with identical or similar goods treated alike.
For a manufacturer in China the useful rule is Article 166: a mark is in use when the goods it distinguishes «han sido puestos en el comercio o se encuentran disponibles en el mercado bajo esa marca, en la cantidad y del modo que normalmente corresponde» [have been put on sale or are available in the market under that mark, in the amount and in the way that is normal for them], considering what the goods are and how they are sold. Goods made in China and sold in Colombia under the mark, by you or by an importer you have authorized, can meet that test; sales inside China cannot, because China is not an Andean member country. Keep the written authorization and the invoices that show the goods on the Colombian market. How a cancellation for non-use is brought and defended is explained in trademark non-use cancellation in Colombia.
Documents signed in China: the apostille since November 7, 2023
China deposited its instrument of accession to the 1961 Hague Convention, which did away with the legalisation of foreign public documents, on March 8, 2023, and the Convention took effect for China on November 7, 2023; Colombia has applied it since January 30, 2001. The HCCH records one objection to China’s accession, made by India, and none by Colombia, so the Convention applies between China and Colombia. For a public document executed in mainland China, such as a notarial act or an official certificate placed on a document signed in a private capacity (Article 1, which leaves out documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents and administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations), Colombia must exempt it from legalisation (Article 2). The apostille of the competent Chinese authority is then the one formality that can be demanded to confirm who signed, in what capacity and, where relevant, the seal or stamp (Article 3).
China’s declaration on accession designates the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the competent authority and adds that, authorized by that Ministry, «the Foreign Affairs Offices of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government can issue the certificates to public documents emanated within the respective administrative areas». Hong Kong and Macao keep their own authorities, among them the Registrar of the High Court in Hong Kong and the Director of the Justice Affairs Department in Macao, and the Convention already applied there, according to the HCCH since April 25, 1965 for Hong Kong SAR and since February 4, 1969 for Macao. A document executed in Hong Kong is therefore apostilled in Hong Kong.
The apostille certifies who signed and in what capacity, not what the document says, and the SIC also needs a simple Spanish translation of any document not written in Spanish, unless it waives it (Decision 486, Article 8). We send you the list of documents to sign in China, saying which of them need a notary and an apostille, before anything is signed; the general rules for powers signed outside Colombia are in power of attorney for Colombia.
SIC official fees for 2026, in US dollars
Resolution 6167 of January 30, 2026 sets the SIC fees in Colombian pesos. The figures below use COP 3,194.44 to the US dollar, the TRM (market representative rate) that datos.gov.co lists as valid from October 10 to 13, 2026, rounded to the dollar; they are the fees for filing through the SIC’s online channel, which are below the paper-filing fees.
| Step before the SIC | Official fee, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Application, first class | about USD 422 |
| Every further class in that application | about USD 211 |
| Priority claim based on the CNIPA filing, per class | about USD 95 |
| Opposition against a Colombian application, per class | about USD 193 |
| Claim of well-known status in an opposition or in reply to a cancellation action, per sign | about USD 379 |
| Recordal of a transfer of ownership, per registration | about USD 152 |
If Colombia is designated through Madrid, the SIC filing fee is not paid: Colombia’s individual fee, collected by WIPO, covers it. From January 1, 2027, Resolution 75972 of September 23, 2026 governs these fees and repeals Resolution 6167, so a filing made in 2027 is quoted at the new rates. The table leaves out our own charges: for trademark matters we send a written flat-fee quote the same day, with oppositions and appeals priced separately.
As for timing, these figures come from our practice before the SIC with national applications and are not legal deadlines: about six to ten months to a decision when nobody opposes, about twelve or thirteen months with an opposition, and roughly eleven more months if a refusal is appealed. Our study of real SIC files, with the times measured on them, is published in Spanish: SIC timing study.
Who handles your trademark
Andrés Felipe López Gutiérrez, founding partner of the firm, has your file in his hands from the first search, and you deal with him directly. He has more than 20 years of legal practice, and more than 3,000 trademarks have been registered and defended before the SIC under his direction. He holds postgraduate specializations in Commercial Law, from Universidad del Rosario, and in Public Management and Administrative Institutions, from Universidad de los Andes, and the trademark guides on this site are published under his legal responsibility.
On trademarks, his work runs from clearance searches and registrability opinions to SIC filings, oppositions for applicants and for opponents, appeals against refusals, renewals, non-use cancellations, assignments, coexistence agreements, watch services for portfolios and Madrid Protocol designations. In commercial law he drafts the distribution, supply and franchise contracts through which a manufacturer’s brand reaches the company that will sell it in Colombia.
How we work with a brand owner in China
The work starts in the Colombian register, not in the Chinese one: we search the SIC records for identical and similar marks, including the Latin-script version of your brand, and you receive our written view on whether the mark can be registered before you pay any official fee. Next we check whether your CNIPA priority is still open, recommend Madrid or a national filing, draft the Colombian list of goods and send you the documents to sign. After filing we follow the case to its decision, and if a similar application appears in the Colombian gazette while we follow your file, we review it with you before the opposition period ends. Trademark agencies in China acting for a brand owner can see how we cooperate with foreign firms on our page Colombia trademark agent for foreign IP firms.
Two things do not need us. A first look at whether the brand seems available in Colombia can be taken in the SIC’s public database, as explained in Colombia trademark search. And the Madrid designation itself goes through CNIPA without a Colombian lawyer; a Colombian lawyer usually comes in when the SIC issues a provisional refusal or someone opposes, because the answer is given under Colombian procedure and in Spanish.
Page updated in October 2026, with sources checked that month: Decision 486 and the list of member countries on the Andean Community’s official website; in WIPO Lex, the official English translation of the Paris Convention, the Madrid Protocol and its Regulations, and the member lists of the Madrid Agreement, the Madrid Protocol, the Paris Convention and the Nice Agreement; WIPO’s Madrid fee pages; WIPO and CNIPA notices on CNIPA’s online filing of Madrid transactions; the Apostille Convention’s text, status table and China’s declarations on the HCCH website; SIC Resolutions 6167 and 75972 of 2026; and the TRM on datos.gov.co.
Frequently asked questions
Is China part of the Madrid Protocol?
Yes. WIPO Lex lists China as bound by the Madrid Protocol since December 1, 1995, and Colombia since August 29, 2012. A Chinese company that has applied for or registered its mark at CNIPA can therefore designate Colombia in an international application filed through CNIPA, or add Colombia later to an existing international registration. China is also bound by the Madrid Agreement, since October 4, 1989, but Colombia is not, so between the two countries the Protocol applies and Colombia’s individual fee is paid.
How does a Chinese company register its trademark in Colombia?
In one of two ways. It can name Colombia in a Madrid Protocol application that CNIPA forwards to WIPO, based on its Chinese application or registration, or it can apply directly to the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC), usually through a Colombian lawyer, keeping the date of its CNIPA application as priority if the Colombian application is lodged within six months of it. Either way the SIC examines the mark under Decision 486 of the Andean Community, and the exclusive right in Colombia comes from the Colombian registration, not from the Chinese one.
What is the Colombian equivalent of CNIPA for trademarks?
For trademarks it is the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, known in Spanish as the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio or SIC. Under Decision 486 of the Andean Community it examines both national applications and Madrid designations of Colombia, rules on oppositions and keeps the Colombian trademark register, which can be searched before filing. Its fees for 2026 are set by Resolution 6167 of January 30, 2026.
Since when can documents from China be apostilled for use in Colombia?
Since November 7, 2023, when the Apostille Convention took effect for China, according to the Hague Conference on Private International Law; Colombia has applied it since January 30, 2001, and did not object to China’s accession. In Hong Kong SAR and Macao the Convention already applied, since April 25, 1965 and February 4, 1969. A public document executed in China, such as a notarial act, is exempt from legalisation in Colombia and needs only the apostille (Articles 2 and 3), plus a simple Spanish translation for the SIC unless the SIC waives it (Decision 486, Article 8).
Who issues the apostille in China?
In mainland China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, with its authorization, the Foreign Affairs Offices of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, for public documents issued within their own areas, according to China’s declaration recorded by the Hague Conference. Hong Kong SAR and Macao have their own designated authorities, such as the Registrar of the High Court in Hong Kong and the Secretary for Administration and Justice and the Director and Deputy Directors of the Justice Affairs Department in Macao. The apostille certifies the signature, the capacity of the signer and any seal or stamp, not the content of the document.
What is trademark squatting, and what can a Chinese brand do about it in Colombia?
It is the registration of someone else’s brand before its real owner files, for example by a local importer, distributor or agent. In Colombia, Decision 486 bars the registration of a sign that could be confused with a third party’s sign when the applicant is or has been that owner’s representative, distributor or expressly authorized person (Article 136, literal d), and lets the office refuse an application when it has reasonable indications that it was sought to commit an act of unfair competition (Article 137). A published application can be opposed by anyone with a legitimate interest within thirty business days after publication (Articles 146 and 5), and a registration granted in breach of Article 136 or in bad faith can be annulled through the relative nullity action, which lapses five years after the grant (Article 172).
What is the Andean Community, and why does it matter for a Chinese trademark in Colombia?
It is an international organization formed, as its official website states, by Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, which share one industrial property regime, Decision 486, while each country keeps its own trademark office and register. For a Chinese brand it matters in three ways: use of the mark in any of those four countries, by the owner or by someone it has authorized, counts against cancellation of the Colombian registration for non-use, while sales in China do not; a well-known mark is measured by its recognition in a member country, not in China; and whoever holds an identical or similar mark in Peru, Ecuador or Bolivia, or applied for it there first, can oppose a conflicting application in Colombia for goods or services where its use could mislead the public, provided it files its own Colombian application when it opposes.
Contact us
Send us the mark, in characters and in the Latin-script form you will use in Colombia, the goods or services you will sell there and, if you have already filed it at CNIPA, the date and number of that application on WhatsApp; 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 · Registering an Indian trademark in Colombia · Registro de marcas en Colombia para extranjeros (Spanish)