TLDR: The USPTO is retiring TEAS for outbound international trademark filings and routing them through WIPO’s Madrid e-Filing, moving filing, payment and error-correction onto a platform every US brand owner must set up before the deadline.
What actually changes on October 1
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is moving outbound international trademark applications off its own Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) and onto Madrid e-Filing, the platform run by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Until September 30, 2026, applicants can use either system. From October 1, 2026, Madrid e-Filing becomes the sole platform for filing an initial international application based on a US application or registration.
The gating requirement is small but easy to miss: filing on Madrid e-Filing requires a WIPO account. A brand owner who shows up on October 1 without one cannot file that day. The change is backed by a final rule and a Federal Register notice that update USPTO regulations and formally designate Madrid e-Filing as the filing platform, so this is a fixed regulatory date rather than a soft preference.
This is not a niche procedural footnote. US applicants are the single largest source of international trademark applications through the Madrid System, which means the population affected by the switch is unusually broad.
| Metric (2025) | Figure |
|---|---|
| International applications filed worldwide via the Madrid System | 64,150 (down 1.5% year on year) |
| Top country of origin | United States |
| US-origin applications | 10,997 |
| Members in the Madrid System, covering | 116 members / 132 countries and territories |
Source: WIPO, Madrid Yearly Review 2026 (Executive Summary); WIPO, Madrid System Members.
In 2025 alone, US applicants filed 10,997 international applications, the most of any country, out of 64,150 filed worldwide. The Madrid System now spans 116 members covering 132 countries and territories, so almost any US business protecting a brand abroad routes through it.
Payment moves to Geneva, and to Swiss francs
The mechanical change most likely to surprise a finance team sits in the payment step. On Madrid e-Filing, applicants pay WIPO directly in Swiss francs rather than paying the USPTO in US dollars. The individual fee for the international registration itself was already payable to WIPO in Swiss francs; what shifts is that the certification-stage payment flow now runs through Geneva too, in that currency.
For a single filing the currency line is minor. For a company running a steady trademark portfolio, it introduces a foreign-exchange variable into the filing budget and, depending on the card or account used, potential FX fees on every transaction. Teams that reconcile trademark costs in dollars should expect the amounts to move with the CHF/USD rate.
The new platform is built to catch errors before they become denials
The upside for applicants is in how the system handles mistakes. Madrid e-Filing, already used by intellectual property offices in more than 40 countries, pulls data automatically from USPTO records and adds a secure messaging channel for corrections during the certification stage. That combination is meant to reduce filing errors and let applicants fix irregularities in dialogue with the office.
The concrete payoff the USPTO points to is fewer formal denials of certification and, with them, fewer of the petitions that follow a denial. A denied certification costs time and often a petition fee, so a workflow that resolves problems before a denial is issued removes a real source of delay from the international filing path.
The window closes September 30 — set this up now
The date to act on is not October 1; it is the run-up to it. Two things need to exist before a first-of-October filing is possible: a WIPO account, and a payment method that can settle in Swiss francs. Neither is difficult, but both take longer than the morning a deadline-driven filing is due.
| When | What applies |
|---|---|
| Through September 30, 2026 | File a new outbound international application through either TEAS or Madrid e-Filing |
| October 1, 2026 | Madrid e-Filing becomes the sole platform for initial international applications based on US applications or registrations |
| Prerequisite, before filing | A WIPO account and a Swiss-franc payment method must already be in place |
Source: USPTO, Transition to Madrid e-Filing.
For in-house counsel and brand managers, the practical steps divide cleanly. Anyone who files should create a WIPO account this quarter and run one test login well ahead of the cutoff. Finance should confirm a payment route that settles in Swiss francs and decide how FX will be booked. Operations should update docketing, standard operating procedures and cost templates that still name TEAS for international filings, so the next filer follows the current path rather than a retired one. And where a filing is already imminent, the choice is simple: file it on the system the team knows before September 30, or move deliberately to Madrid e-Filing with the account and payment already tested.
The transition is, on paper, a change of platform. In practice it moves three things at once — where you file, how you pay, and how you fix errors — onto a system owned by WIPO rather than the USPTO. The businesses that treat the next few weeks as a setup task, not an October problem, keep their international filings uninterrupted.
References
- USPTO. Transition to Madrid e-Filing. https://www.uspto.gov/ip-policy/international-protection/madrid-protocol/transition-madrid-e-filing
- WIPO. Madrid Yearly Review 2026 — The International Registrations of Marks (Executive Summary). https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/executive-summary-madrid-yearly-review-2026-the-international-registrations-of-marks/en/madrid-yearly-review-2026-executive-summary.html
- WIPO. Madrid System Members. https://www.wipo.int/en/web/madrid-system/members/index
