TRADEMARK COUNTRY SELECTION

It helps you decide in which countries to extend your trademark. Instead of looking only at the broad Nice classes, it looks at the goods you actually sell: where they are imported, where your own country already exports them, how large and how specialised each market is, and what it costs to file there by each route (national, Madrid or ARIPO).

You enter your goods as you would in a trademark specification, and the country you file from. The system scores every trademark office from 0 to 100, ranks them, and shows the total cost of filing in the offices you choose.

Enter the goods for each Nice class as you would in a trademark specification, for example "Class 25: t-shirts, sweatshirts and hats; footwear". The system splits the specification into products and matches each product to the customs (HS) codes under which it is traded, so that it can use trade statistics for exactly those goods.

The matching is based on about 830 rules, built from the goods most often listed in trademark applications. Where a product is too general to match a specific code (for example "chemicals" or "machines"), the broader group of codes for its class is used. Only goods (classes 1 to 34) are covered - see "Which goods do you recognise?" below.

Your exports measures how much of the goods in your specification your country already exports to that market (CEPII BACI trade data, 2024), both as a value and as that market's share of your country's exports of the goods (half each). It shows where your goods - and your competitors' goods from your country - are already sold, so where a trademark is most likely to be needed and where copying is most likely to hurt.

It has the highest weighting, 25%, because it is the most direct evidence of where your goods are wanted. It looks at your country's exports as a whole, not at your own company's sales.

Affordability is based on the total cost of filing in that country by the route you choose: official fees plus professional fees, from filing to registration. A lower cost means more protection for your budget. It is weighted 15% so that cost influences the ranking without outweighing the value of the market. Increase it if your budget is tight. See "What costs are included?" below.

Foreign filing demand is the number of trademark application classes filed at that office in 2024 by applicants from other countries (WIPO, World Intellectual Property Indicators 2025). It shows where foreign brand owners choose to protect their trademarks - the same decision you are making. It is weighted 10% because it covers all goods and services, not only yours. Taiwan, Province of China, which WIPO does not report, and offices without figures get an average score.

Counterfeit risk is that country's exports of your goods (CEPII BACI, 2024). Countries that make and export the goods are where copies are often made, and a trademark there helps you to stop counterfeits at their source, for example with the help of customs. It is weighted 10% because brand owners need protection where their goods are made as well as where they are sold: that is where copies are made, and customs can stop them only on the strength of a registered trademark.

Import growth is the average yearly change in that country's imports of your goods from 2022 to 2024 (changes larger than 30% a year are capped at 30%). It shows markets that are growing or shrinking. It is weighted 5% because three years of trade data can be affected by one-off events, such as stock building or currency changes.

Market size is the size of the country's economy (GDP, World Bank). A larger economy generally means more sales and more potential infringers, so a trademark there is usually worth more. It is weighted 5% because the trade factors already reflect much of the size of the market for your goods, and because it overlaps strongly with Population.

Population is the number of people the trademark covers (World Bank). It matters most for consumer goods, and it gives credit to large markets whose economies are still growing. It is weighted 5% because it partly overlaps with market size.

Specialisation compares your goods' share of that country's total imports with their share of world imports (CEPII BACI, 2024). A high score means your goods are relatively important in that country's trade, even if the country is small. It is not weighted by default (0%) because it largely repeats Net imports and, as a relative measure, says nothing about the size of the market. Increase it to find smaller markets with a strong appetite for your goods.

Tick the countries you are considering. The total for the ticked countries is shown under the table, and the same countries are ticked for you when you click Select Law Firms (where firms are available). No countries are ticked to begin with. If you file through Madrid or ARIPO, the costs paid once per application (such as the Madrid basic fee or the ARIPO filing fee) are shared over the countries you tick on that route, so ticking a country also changes the costs of the others on that route. SANi is South Africa and Nigeria together, so ticking SANi unticks South Africa and Nigeria, and ticking either of them unticks SANi; SANi has its own firms in Select Law Firms. The downloaded report shows the total for the ticked countries.

Each bar is a country's score (0 to 100), split into the points each factor adds with your weightings. It shows why a country ranks where it does - for example a large market that is expensive to file in - and whether a high ranking rests on one factor or on many. Change the weightings in section 2 to see the effect.

The total cost of filing in each of the top 20 countries and in GlobalIPCo's options (in amber), by your route: official fees plus professional fees, from filing to registration. It lets you compare budgets at a glance.

Each country's score against its total cost (on a log scale). The dashed lines mark the middle score and the middle cost and divide the map into four quadrants. Upper left: a strong market for your goods at a low cost - these are the default choices. Upper right: strong markets at a higher cost, worth it if the budget allows. Lower left: lower-cost but weaker markets. Lower right: weaker markets at a higher cost, usually the last to consider.

The net imports of your goods in each country divided by the total cost of filing there: how much market each dollar of filing protects. It is most useful when the budget is limited.

The total cost of filing in each country divided by its population in millions. Shorter bars mean more consumers reached for each dollar - most relevant for consumer goods.

Countries are added in ranking order. Each point shows the total cost so far and the share of the world covered: of world imports of your goods, of world GDP and of world population. Where the lines flatten, further countries add little coverage for their cost, which helps you decide how many countries to file in. A country already covered (an EU state after the EU) adds nothing, and the Madrid and ARIPO application costs are counted once.

South Africa, SANi, Nigeria, OAPI (one application for its 17 states) and ARIPO (one application designating all its states) side by side: the total cost against the net imports of your goods, with the size of each bubble showing the population covered. It compares the main ways of protecting a trademark in Africa.

Law firms can customise the report and download the report under their own name to send to clients. The custom settings can be saved and used for other trademarks. Click Customise Report and enter your firm's name and, if you like, your logo. You can add US$ surcharges to each trademark application and additional class (if permitted), set the weightings for your reports, choose how many countries to show in the tables, leave out all Madrid Protocol countries, remove countries you don't want to show, and choose which sections to include. The surcharges are included in the costs used for the ranking. The report shows your firm's name and logo instead of Sibanda & Zantwijk's, and leaves out the GlobalIPCo options. It uses the trademark details entered in section 1.

In countries where each class is a separate application (such as South Africa and Nigeria), the surcharge per country is added to the first application and the surcharge per further class to each further application. SANi is two countries, so it carries both surcharges twice.

A single trademark registration covers all their member states: the EU trademark covers the 27 EU countries, the Benelux trademark covers Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and the OAPI trademark covers its 17 member states. Their trade, economic and filing figures are therefore added up. The EU countries can also be shown separately, as each also has its own national trademark office.

Your home country is left out of the ranking, because you would normally already have (or file) a trademark there. If you file from a member state of Benelux or OAPI, that regional office is left out as well.

Countries and territories with fewer than 1 million people, imports of less than US$2 billion a year and fewer than 1,000 trademark classes filed there by foreign applicants are left out of the ranking - for example Nauru, Palau, Kiribati and many small island territories. They are rarely worth a separate filing. Small countries that are important for trademarks, such as Iceland, Macao, Brunei, the Bahamas, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, are still ranked, and ARIPO's member states are always shown. Monaco and Liechtenstein are not ranked because their trade is reported together with France and Switzerland.

An OAPI trademark automatically covers all its 17 member States: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.

SANi is GlobalIPCo's combination trademark, combining South African and Nigerian trademarks in one instruction. The two countries combine well: both have similar examination, are issued around 2 years after filing, and are low-cost.

Click Add Law Firm. Enter your firm's details (we can read your name and logo from your website), then choose a country and enter your professional fees. Use Add Another Country for each further country, and Show All to add optional fees and your profile (up to 50 words). Save with your email address. Adding your firm is free, and we do not publish your fee schedule. A new page, and any country you add later, needs our approval: we review it before it is shown to applicants and let you know when it is approved. You can add more than one firm under the same email address, each with its own firm name.

The highlighted fees: the steps every trademark application goes through to registration (filing, examination, publication and grant) for the first class, and your fee for each further class. All other fees are optional. The total is your professional fees only (no official fees) for the standard case: your fees to file and prosecute a trademark to grant without office action responses.

Yes. Drop your tariff (PDF or Word .docx, up to 10 MB) on the fee sheet. Software, not AI, reads it, chooses the country and fills in the fees it can match; the file is not stored. Filled fees are shown in blue for you to check. Tariffs covering several countries can fill a sheet for each, and a tariff for another country than the sheet you dropped it on fills (or adds) the sheet for the tariff’s country. Fees in scanned pages or pictures cannot be read.

Click Edit Law Firm and enter the email address you saved with. To keep your page safe, we email a passcode to that address: enter it to open your page (if you have more than one firm under it, choose the one to edit). You can edit your page once we have approved it. Make any changes and click Save/Confirm Data. Changes to the countries we have already approved are shown straight away and need only the passcode; a country you add needs our approval before it is shown. Firms must confirm their details every year to keep receiving instructions; we email you a reminder 11 months after you last saved or confirmed.

After you save your page, Get your LinkedIn URL appears at the top of it, with a preview of a page about your firm and your countries: why clients should consider them, the trademark classes in which they lead their region, and what filing there costs with you. Once we have approved your page, click COPY URL next to the link for all your countries or for one country, and paste it into a LinkedIn post (Edit Law Firm shows the links too). LinkedIn shows an image made for your firm with the link.

Once your page is approved, you can mark firms in other countries as Preferred on your Add Law Firm page; they are listed first when you select law firms for a trademark. Endorse a firm to recommend it: the firm is told, and your endorsement is shown to applicants. Use Invite Firm to ask a firm that is not yet listed to add its pricing.

Click Select Law Firms and tick the countries you want. Under each country you see the law firms that can file there, with their estimated filing fee for your trademark. The countries ticked in the Country selection table are ticked for you. Click REQUEST QUOTE CONFIRMATION, enter your name and email address, add a note for the firm if you like (up to 50 words), and enter the passcode we email you. We will send your details and the trademark's details to that firm once we have checked the request. The firm then contacts you directly.

Firms that we have approved, that have pricing for the country and have confirmed their details in the past year. “Verified” means S&Z has used the firm before and enjoyed the experience. A firm’s listing on our system does not mean that S&Z endorses the firm. For South Africa, Nigeria, SANi, and OAPI, only GlobalIPCo and Sibanda & Zantwijk can be selected.

Section 4 shows a flag for every country with its own trademark office, and for the European Union (EUIPO), Benelux and OAPI, in alphabetical order. Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates are not included: much of the goods they import is re-exported, so their trade figures do not reflect their own markets. Click a flag or a country name to open that country's page in a new tab.

Each page shows the country's population, economy and the trademark classes filed there by foreign applicants a year; the goods classes in which it is a leading import market in its region and the world; its fastest-growing markets; and charts of its biggest import markets by class, its share of its region's imports and their growth. Where the country is one of the world's leading exporters - of the goods of a trademark class, or of other goods such as ores, fuels or crops - or where goods make up at least a quarter of its own exports, the page lists them and charts its share of world exports and its fastest-growing exports. For the European Union, Benelux, OAPI and SANi, only exports to countries outside the office count.

The pages for the European Union, Benelux and OAPI compare each office with the rest of the world rather than with its own region. Where trademarks for a country are often obtained through a regional system (an EU trade mark in an EU country, or an ARIPO application in an ARIPO member state), the country's page says so, as its own filing figures count only applications filed directly with its national office.

No. The ranking is a guide based on published statistics and typical trademark costs.