The government of Qatar deposited its instrument of accession to the Madrid Protocol – the governing Treaty of the Madrid System for protecting trademarks worldwide – with World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Director General Daren Tang on 3 May.

The Madrid Protocol aims to provide international legal protection for trademarks by submitting the application in one country. The Madrid System offers a convenient and cost-effective mechanism for national or regional trademark holders to obtain and maintain protection of their brands simultaneously in up to 131 countries worldwide, representing over 80% of world trade.

Qatar is the 115th Member of the Madrid System and its accession to the Madrid Protocol means that national trademark holders in four – Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – out of the six countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council can now use the Madrid System to secure cross-border protection of brands.

This is an important step for entrepreneurs and businesses in Qatar who wish to expand the protection of their trademarks internationally and protect their IPs through one application. The Treaty guarantees benefits such as maintaining and renewing the registration, registering and transferring ownership of the international registration to others, or changing the name and/or address or other data in a single procedure that applies to all designated contracting parties.

Acceding to the Madrid Protocol is part of a series of initiatives taken by Qatar to strengthen frameworks for protecting IP rights and build an attractive economy to foreign investments within its National Development Vision 2030. In 2023, Qatar ranked 50th out of 132 economies listed in the WIPO’s Global Innovation Index (GII).

Qatar has recently strengthened its strategic partnership with WIPO through a number of memoranda of understanding (MOUs) and joint academic programmes to develop expertise in the field of intellectual property and in resolving disputes related to intellectual property.

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The Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) agreed to the inclusion of eligible exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as part of the mutual stock market access arrangement – called ‘Stock Connect’ – between Mainland China and Hong Kong as from 4 July.

The inclusion of ETFs as tradeable products in Stock Connect is designed to broaden the scope of investment opportunities for domestic and overseas investors. It will allow Hong Kong and Mainland investors – both individual and institutional – to trade eligible ETFs listed on their respective exchanges via local securities firms or brokers.

Under ETF Connect, only Mainland and Hong Kong ETFs that satisfy their respective Northbound or Southbound regulatory requirements will be eligible to be included in Stock Connect. These requirements include but are not limited to:

• The ETF must be traded in the requisite currency – RMB or HKD – and have met the minimum threshold of daily average assets under management in the last six months.
• The ETF must have been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) or Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) for at least six months.
• The respective benchmark indexes tracked by the Mainland ETF or Hong Kong ETF must have been launched for at least one year and must satisfy certain criteria in relation to the composition of stocks and the weighting of its constituents.

Eligible ETFs will be subject to regular review, and where an Eligible ETF falls below certain thresholds, it will be designated as a ‘sell-only’ security, meaning that investors may sell existing holdings but will be restricted from buying such an ETF.

Nicolas Aguzin, Chief Executive Officer of HKEX, said: The inclusion of eligible ETFs in Stock Connect since 4 July 2022 marked another milestone in our landmark mutual market access programmes, further deepening connectivity between Hong Kong and Mainland China’s capital markets and supporting the continued development of the region’s ETF ecosystem.

“With the rollout of the first blockchain ETF, first metaverse-themed ETF, first carbon futures ETF and first pure-play Hong Kong equity ESG ETF during the period, our ETF offering has strengthened and diversified, supporting Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s preferred ETF marketplace.”

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