EU trademarks in Colombia: Madrid through the EUIPO or a national office, SIC filing and apostille

An EU trade mark granted by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) covers the 27 member states of the European Union as one territory, and a mark registered by the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), by the French Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI), by the Italian trademark office or by the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) covers only its own country or, for the BOIP, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. None of them reaches Colombia.

Register an EU trademark in Colombia: key facts

Six steps for a European brand

1. Search: look for identical and similar marks in the SIC register, pending applications included, before paying official fees, which are not refunded once the procedure starts (Decision 486, Article 277).
2. Choose the base and the route: the EUIPO or your national office for a Madrid designation (Protocol, Article 2(2)), a subsequent designation if you already hold an international registration (Article 3ter(2)), or a direct SIC filing within six months of your first European filing (Decision 486, Article 9).
3. File: the Office of origin certifies the international application against the European base and WIPO notifies Colombia (Protocol, Article 3(1)); a direct application is filed with the SIC, with the petition in Spanish and the goods or services in their Nice classes (Decision 486, Articles 7 and 151).
4. Publication and opposition: publication in the Industrial Property Gazette opens thirty business days for oppositions (Decision 486, Articles 145 and 146); on the Madrid route, a refusal by Colombia, after examination or opposition, is sent through WIPO (Protocol, Article 5).
5. Decision: the SIC resolves on registrability and on any opposition (Decision 486, Article 150), and an applicant who disagrees with a refusal has ten days from notification to seek reconsideration or appeal (Law 1437 of 2011, Article 76); without a timely refusal, the designation is protected as if the SIC had registered the mark (Protocol, Article 4(1)(a)).
6. Keep it alive: a SIC registration runs for ten years from the grant and is renewed at the SIC (Decision 486, Article 152); a designation is renewed at WIPO together with the international registration (Protocol, Article 7); and the mark has to be used in the Andean Community (Decision 486, Article 165).

Each route is developed below: the Madrid route in choosing the base, and the direct filing in claiming your European filing date in Colombia.

Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 sets the limit of the EU title in its first article: «An EU trade mark shall have a unitary character. It shall have equal effect throughout the Union» (Article 1(2)). In Colombia the exclusive right to use a mark is acquired by registering it with the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, the SIC (Decision 486 of the Andean Community, Article 154). A European company can get there by designating Colombia in a Madrid Protocol application filed through the EUIPO or through its national office, by adding Colombia to an international registration it already holds, or by applying directly to the SIC, which keeps the date of the European application as priority when the Colombian one is lodged within six months of it.

ADALET LEGAL S.A.S., a Colombian law firm, wrote this guide for manufacturers, retailers, software companies and consumer brands based in Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the other member states whose goods or services are starting to reach Colombian buyers, and for the European trademark firms that manage those portfolios. What applies to any foreign applicant is explained in trademark registration in Colombia; a Spanish-language version of this guide, which also covers filings made in Spain, is registrar una marca española o de la Unión Europea en Colombia.

A note on quotations: Decision 486 is published by the Andean Community in Spanish, so we quote it in the original with our unofficial English translation in brackets. The EU Regulation is quoted from its English version in the Official Journal of the European Union, and the treaties from the English texts published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH).

The European Union, four member states and Colombia in the treaties

Before choosing a route, check which treaties bind each side. The table gives the entry into force of each treaty for each party, taken in October 2026 from WIPO Lex and, for the Apostille Convention, from the status table kept by the HCCH.

Three things follow. WIPO lists 26 of the 27 member states as bound by the Madrid Protocol in their own right, Malta being the exception, and the Union itself is a separate contracting party, so a European company may base its international application either on a national mark or on an EU trade mark. All 27 member states are parties to the Apostille Convention, and the HCCH status table records no objection to Colombia’s accession, so the Convention applies between Colombia and each of them. And although Colombia is not bound by the Nice Agreement, which Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands have applied since 1961 or 1962, it uses the Nice Classification for goods and services all the same, as Decision 486 obliges the Andean countries to do (Article 151).

Choosing the base: your national office or the EUIPO

A Madrid Protocol application has to rest on a mark already applied for or registered with the office of a contracting party, and it is sent to WIPO’s International Bureau through the office where that base was filed or registered, which the Protocol calls the Office of origin (Article 2(2)). For a European company, that office can be national or regional, and the choice decides more than the paperwork.

A national base: DPMA, INPI, the Italian office or the BOIP

When the base is a German, French or Italian mark, the international application goes through that country’s office, and under Article 2(1)(i) of the Protocol the holder must be a national of that state, be domiciled in it or have a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in it. For Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg there is a single office; the EU Regulation itself refers to marks registered, «in the case of Belgium, the Netherlands or Luxembourg, at the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property» (Article 8(2)(a)(ii)). A Dutch, Belgian or Luxembourg company whose base is a Benelux mark therefore files through the BOIP.

An EU base: the EUIPO

When the base is an EU trade mark or an application for one, the international application «shall be filed at the Office», meaning the EUIPO (Regulation 2017/1001, Article 183(1)). It is open to any company that is a national of a member state, is domiciled in the Union or has a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment there (Protocol, Article 2(1)(ii)), which is how a business based in Malta, the one member state outside the Protocol, can still reach Colombia through Madrid. The application is filed «in one of the official languages of the Union, using a form provided by the Office» (Article 184(1)); if that language is not English, French or Spanish, the three languages in which a Madrid application can be made (Rule 6(1) of the Regulations under the Protocol), the applicant names one of them as a second language (Article 184(2)). The EUIPO charges EUR 300 for handling the international application (Article 184(4) and Annex I, part A, item 34). If the international application is filed before the EU mark is registered, the applicant must say whether it rests on the EU application or on the future registration, and in the second case it is deemed received on the day the EU mark is registered (Article 183(2)).

Five years in which Colombia follows the base

For five years counted from the international registration date, the Colombian designation stands or falls with its European base. Article 6(3) of the Protocol lists what brings it down: the withdrawal, lapse or renunciation of the base, or a final decision rejecting, revoking, cancelling or invalidating it, in respect of all or some of the goods and services and whether or not the international registration has been transferred. An appeal against a refusal of the base, an action to withdraw, revoke, cancel or invalidate it, or an opposition to it, begun inside the five years, still has that effect if the final decision against the base comes after them, and so does a withdrawal or renunciation made after the five years while one of those proceedings is pending.

An EU base has more ground to clear. Within three months after an EU application is published, the owners of earlier marks registered in any member state, or at the BOIP, may oppose it (Regulation 2017/1001, Articles 46(1) and 8(2)(a)(ii)), and since, as a rule, an EU trade mark can only be registered for the whole Union (Article 1(2)), a single earlier German or Italian registration that wins the opposition stops the EU mark for the goods concerned, and the Colombian designation built on it falls with it. If the EUIPO is your route, check whether the European opposition period has closed without oppositions, and keep the Colombian list to goods that no earlier European right threatens.

If the base does fall, the Colombian position is not entirely lost. When WIPO cancels the international registration at the request of the Office of origin, the former holder has three months to file the same mark with the SIC for goods and services that the designation of Colombia actually covered, meeting Colombian requirements and fees; the SIC then treats that application as filed on the international registration date, or on the date the designation of Colombia was recorded if Colombia was added later, with any priority the international registration enjoyed (Protocol, Article 9quinquies). Both routes are compared in Madrid Protocol or national filing in Colombia.

Already holding an international registration? Adding Colombia

Many European portfolios already include an international registration that never named Colombia. The holder can request the extension afterwards (Protocol, Article 3ter(2)) and may present the subsequent designation to WIPO itself or through the office of its own contracting party (Rule 24(2)(a)), as long as it still meets the conditions of Article 2 of the Protocol when it does so (Rule 24(1)(a)). For a subsequent designation WIPO collects a basic fee of 300 Swiss francs and, for Colombia, the individual fee in its table last updated on October 8, 2026: 276 Swiss francs covering one class, plus 138 per extra class.

Two consequences are easy to miss. Protection in Colombia then runs «from the date on which it has been recorded in the International Register» (Article 3ter(2)), not from the original international registration date, so a Colombian application filed by someone else in the meantime comes first. On the other hand, the five years of dependence still count from the international registration date (Article 6(3)): a designation of Colombia added in the sixth year of an international registration no longer falls with the European base, unless a proceeding against the base that began within the five years is still pending.

Claiming your European filing date in Colombia

A national filing at the SIC lets you keep the date of your first European application. Article 9 of Decision 486 grants a right of priority, for the applicant or its successor in title, to the first application validly filed in another Andean country or «ante una autoridad nacional, regional o internacional» [before a national, regional or international authority] with which Colombia is bound by a treaty setting up a comparable priority right, with the scope and effects that the Paris Convention gives it, as long as the Colombian application for the same mark follows within six months; Decision 486 does not allow that term to be extended.

An EU application counts as a first filing even though the Union itself is not a party to the Paris Convention. The Convention provides that «Any filing that is equivalent to a regular national filing under the domestic legislation of any country of the Union or under bilateral or multilateral treaties concluded between countries of the Union shall be recognized as giving rise to the right of priority» (Article 4(A)(2)), and the EU Regulation states that an EU application which has been accorded a filing date «shall, in the Member States, be equivalent to a regular national filing» (Article 37).

Count the six months from the right application. The period starts on the filing date of the first application, the day of filing is not counted, and if its last day is an official holiday or a day on which the SIC does not accept filings, it is extended to the next working day (Paris Convention, Article 4(C)(2) and (3)). A company that filed with the DPMA, the INPI or the BOIP before going to the EUIPO for the same mark and the same goods should count from the national date, because that is the first application.

The supporting documents come from the European office that received that first application. The SIC must receive a priority declaration stating when, where and, where known, under which number the European application was filed, along with a copy of that application certified by the European office and a certificate of its filing date issued by that same office; declaration and documents can go in with the Colombian application or separately, but nine months after the European filing date is the last day, again with no extension (Decision 486, Article 10). Papers in German, French, Italian or Dutch must come with a plain translation into Spanish, which the SIC may dispense with (Article 8), and the priority is lost if a term, a document or the fee is missed (Article 11). The SIC charges the claim per class. The Madrid route avoids this paperwork, since every international registration enjoys the Paris priority without the formalities of Section D of Article 4 of the Convention (Protocol, Article 4(2)).

Your European list of goods, read in Colombia

The specification accepted in Europe is a starting point, not the Colombian answer. The EU Regulation itself warns that «Goods and services shall not be regarded as being similar to each other on the ground that they appear in the same class under the Nice Classification», nor dissimilar because they appear in different classes (Article 33(7)), and Decision 486 holds the same for the Andean countries: sharing or not sharing a Nice class does not settle whether two products or services are similar (Article 151). At the SIC the test is whether your goods or services resemble those of an earlier Colombian mark, in any class, so we search the Colombian register in neighbouring classes as well and draft a Colombian list around the goods or services you will actually market there.

Subsidiaries, distributors and use of the mark in Colombia

European groups often enter Colombia through a local subsidiary, an importer or a franchise network, and two Andean rules follow from that. Licences must be recorded: «Deberá registrarse ante la oficina nacional competente toda licencia de uso de la marca. La falta de registro ocasionará que la licencia no surta efectos frente a terceros» [Every licence to use the mark must be registered with the competent national office. Failure to register means that the licence has no effect against third parties] (Article 162). A licence may cover a registered mark or one still being processed, it must be in writing to be recorded, and any interested person may request the recordal (Article 162).

And use has to happen in the Andean market. Any interested person may ask the SIC to cancel a registration that, without justified reason, nobody used in at least one member country of the Andean Community during the three consecutive years before the action, counting use by the owner, by a licensee or by another authorized person. No such action may be brought within three years of notice of the resolution closing the registration procedure in the administrative stage; it fails if the owner shows that non-use was due to force majeure or an act of God, among other justifications; and where only part of the goods went unused, the SIC trims the list to the goods actually used, treating identical or similar goods alike (Article 165). Sales in Germany, France, Italy or the Netherlands do not count; sales in Colombia by your licensee or another person you have authorized do, so keep the written licence and the invoices. The action itself is explained in trademark non-use cancellation in Colombia, agreements in trademark licensing and franchising, and what a group that also holds the mark in Peru, Ecuador or Bolivia can do against a conflicting Colombian application in Andean trademark opposition in Colombia.

Powers and certificates from Germany, France, Italy or the Netherlands

Colombia has applied the 1961 Hague Convention abolishing the legalisation of foreign public documents since January 30, 2001; France and the Netherlands have applied it since 1965, Germany since 1966 and Italy since 1978. For a public document executed in one of those countries and produced in Colombia, such as a notarial act, a document of a court or an administrative authority, or an official certificate placed on a document signed privately, Colombia must waive legalisation (Articles 1 and 2), and the apostille, issued by the competent authority of the state where the document originates, is the only formality that may be demanded to vouch for who signed it, in what capacity and, if any, the seal or stamp it bears (Article 3). Each state designates those authorities itself (Article 6), so a German notarial act is apostilled by the authority Germany designated for it, and likewise in France, Italy and the Netherlands. Documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents fall outside the Convention, and so do administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations (Article 1).

Language is the second filter. An apostille vouches for the signature and the signer’s capacity and says nothing about the content, and the SIC works in Spanish: a power of attorney, a company certificate or a priority document in German, French, Italian or Dutch needs a plain Spanish translation unless the SIC dispenses with it (Decision 486, Article 8). Before anything is signed, you receive from us the list of documents and which of them need a notary and an apostille; the general rules for powers granted abroad are in power of attorney for Colombia.

SIC fees for 2026 converted to US dollars

The SIC sets its 2026 fees in Colombian pesos in Resolution 6167, dated January 30, 2026. We convert them at COP 3,174.67 per US dollar, which datos.gov.co gives as the market representative rate (TRM) in force from October 17 to 19, 2026, and round to the dollar. They are the fees for the SIC’s online channel, lower than those for paper filings.

On the Madrid route no SIC filing fee is paid: Colombia’s individual fee, collected by WIPO, takes its place, together with WIPO’s basic fee (653 Swiss francs for a mark without colour, 903 with colour) and, for an EU base, the EUIPO’s EUR 300 handling fee. Recording a licence over an application still in process costs about USD 69 at the SIC. These SIC fees apply until December 31, 2026: Resolution 75972, signed on September 23, 2026, governs from January 1, 2027 and repeals Resolution 6167. None of our own charges appears above; for trademark work they are a flat fee, quoted in writing on the day you ask, with oppositions and appeals priced on their own.

How long it takes: in our practice, a national application at the SIC is usually decided within six to ten months when there is no opposition and within twelve or thirteen when someone opposes, and an appeal against a refusal adds about eleven months; these are experience figures, not deadlines set by law. The times we measured on real SIC files are published, in Spanish, in our SIC timing study.

The lawyer in charge of your file

Your file is led by Andrés Felipe López Gutiérrez, the firm’s founding partner, who reviews the search, decides the strategy with you and is the person you speak to. A lawyer for more than 20 years, he has led more than 3,000 trademarks through registration and defense before the SIC, and he answers for the legal content of every trademark guide on this site. He is a specialist in Commercial Law from Universidad del Rosario and in Public Management and Administrative Institutions from Universidad de los Andes.

On the trademark side he handles Madrid Protocol matters, portfolio watch, coexistence agreements, assignments, renewals, non-use cancellations, appeals against refusals, oppositions and replies to them, SIC filings, and the registrability studies and prior-mark searches that come before them. In commercial law he structures distribution, franchise and supply agreements and handles the incorporation and amendment of companies, which is where a trademark meets the subsidiary or distributor that will sell it in Colombia.

Our work for a European brand, step by step

First comes a search of the SIC register for identical and similar marks, and a written view on whether yours can be registered, before any official fee is paid. Next, the route: a designation through the EUIPO or your national office, a subsequent designation if you already hold an international registration, or a national filing with priority if the six months are still open, each with a list of goods written for Colombia. Once filed, we follow the application to its decision, and any similar application published in the Colombian gazette during that time is reviewed with you before the term to oppose expires. European trademark firms can read how we act as their Colombian correspondent in Colombia trademark agent for foreign IP firms.

What you can do without us: run a first availability check yourself, because the SIC keeps a public database of Colombian marks, and Colombia trademark search shows how to use it. And if your European trademark firm designates Colombia through Madrid and no refusal is notified within the Protocol’s time limit, the mark is protected in Colombia as if the SIC had registered it (Protocol, Article 4(1)(a)). You will want a Colombian lawyer when the SIC sends a provisional refusal or someone opposes, since the answer is written in Spanish under Colombian procedure; provisional refusal in Colombia explains that stage.

Last reviewed in October 2026. For this page we read, that month, the English text of Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 in the Official Journal of the European Union, Decision 486 and the Andean Community’s own description of its members, the WIPO Lex texts of the Paris Convention, the Madrid Protocol and the Regulations under it, the WIPO Lex membership tables for the Protocol, the Paris Convention and the Nice Agreement, the Madrid fee schedules on wipo.int, the HCCH text and status table of the Apostille Convention, the European Union’s list of its 27 countries, SIC Resolutions 6167 and 75972 of 2026, and the TRM series on datos.gov.co.

Frequently asked questions

What countries does an EU trademark cover?

The 27 member states of the European Union, as a single territory: the EU Regulation gives the EU trade mark equal effect throughout the Union and, unless the Regulation provides otherwise, it can only be registered, transferred, surrendered, revoked or declared invalid for the whole Union (Article 1(2)). Countries outside the Union, such as the United Kingdom and Switzerland, are not covered, and neither is Colombia, where the exclusive right comes from registration with the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) under Decision 486 of the Andean Community. To extend an EU trade mark to Colombia, designate Colombia through the EUIPO under the Madrid Protocol or file with the SIC.

Is the EU part of the Madrid Protocol?

Yes. WIPO Lex lists the European Union as a contracting party to the Madrid Protocol since October 1, 2004, separately from its member states, 26 of which are also bound in their own right; Malta is the exception. Colombia has applied the Protocol since August 29, 2012. A European company can therefore designate Colombia in an international application based either on an EU trade mark, filed through the EUIPO, or on a national mark, filed through its national office, such as the DPMA in Germany, the INPI in France or the BOIP for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

How is an international registration filed through the EUIPO?

The international application based on an EU trade mark or EU application is filed at the EUIPO (Regulation 2017/1001, Article 183(1)), in one of the official languages of the Union and on the EUIPO form, naming English, French or Spanish as a second language if the filing language is none of them (Article 184(1) and (2)). The applicant must be a national of a member state or be domiciled or have a real and effective industrial or commercial establishment in the Union (Madrid Protocol, Article 2(1)(ii)). Fees: EUR 300 to the EUIPO for handling the application; to WIPO, the basic fee (653 Swiss francs, or 903 for a mark in colour) and, for designating Colombia, 276 Swiss francs covering one class plus 138 per extra class.

How long is the Paris Convention priority period for a trademark?

Six months from the filing date of the first application, without counting the day of filing; if the last day is an official holiday or a day on which the office does not accept filings, the period runs to the next working day (Paris Convention, Article 4(C)). Colombia applies the same six months, which cannot be extended, to a first application filed at the EUIPO or at a national office in Europe (Decision 486, Article 9). The priority declaration, a certified copy of the European application and a certificate of its filing date must reach the SIC no later than nine months after that filing (Article 10), and in 2026 the SIC charges about USD 96 per class for the claim.

Do documents from Germany, France, Italy or the Netherlands need an apostille for Colombia?

Yes, if they are public documents to be produced in Colombia, for example a notarial act, or a privately signed document carrying an official certificate: Colombia exempts them from legalisation, and the only formality that can be required to confirm the signature, the signer’s capacity and any seal or stamp is the apostille of the competent authority of the state where the document was executed (Apostille Convention, Articles 2 and 3). According to the HCCH, France and the Netherlands have applied the Convention since 1965, Germany since 1966, Italy since 1978 and Colombia since January 30, 2001, with no objection recorded to Colombia’s accession. Documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents are outside the Convention, and for the SIC any document not in Spanish also needs a plain Spanish translation, unless the SIC dispenses with it (Decision 486, Article 8).

Is there an Andean equivalent of the EU trademark?

No. The Andean Community, formed by Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru according to its official website, has a common trademark law, Decision 486, but no single regional title: the exclusive right is acquired by registration with each country’s national office (Article 154), so a Colombian registration covers Colombia only. The common law still links the four countries: use of the mark in any one of them, by the owner, a licensee or another authorized person, counts against cancellation of the Colombian registration for non-use (Article 165), and a sign recognized as well known by the relevant sector in any member country is well known for the purposes of Decision 486 (Article 224).

Contact us

Send us on WhatsApp your mark, where it is already filed in Europe (the office, the date and the 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 licensing and franchising in Colombia · Registering an Indian trademark in Colombia · Registering a Chinese trademark in Colombia · Registrar una marca española o de la Unión Europea en Colombia (Spanish)