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WIPO Global Brand Database — multilateral
Layer multilateral
System Aggregated international + national trademark / appellation-of-origin search
Operator World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Rights covered trademark, appellation_of_origin (Article 6ter emblems also reachable separately)
Coverage Madrid International Register + Article 6ter + ~75 national TM offices' contributed records
Working languages English + WIPO official languages
Connector status skipped for live search (ToS prohibits automation; public API restricted to "collaborating IP Offices"); future partner API monitored
Last verified 2026-05-16
Manifest entry not listed in coverage/sources.yaml

Detail surveys:

Higher / sibling layers carrying overlapping data:

  • WIPO Madrid System direct — for Madrid IRs specifically; the Brand DB also includes Madrid plus national TMs.
  • EUIPO TMview — federated national-TM search hosted by EUIPO (search frontend over national registers). Different aggregator with different scope.
  • National TM registers (where APIs exist) — USPTO TM Search, EUIPO EUTMs, IP Australia TMs.

Rating: 🔴 Red — ToS

ToS prohibits automation; idAPI 188 restricted to "collaborating IP Offices"; CAPTCHA-walled UI Jump to access details → View on the atlas →

§1 Mission

The Global Brand Database is WIPO's flagship public trademark search, unifying Madrid IRs + Article 6ter state emblems + contributed records from ~75 national TM offices into one search interface. Conceptually this is the trademark sibling of PATENTSCOPE — and from a coverage perspective, the right multilateral aggregator to substitute for many national TM connectors at once.

The catch matches PATENTSCOPE's: the public Global Brand DB has a web UI but no public API for general use; the one API endpoint in WIPO's catalog is explicitly restricted to "collaborating IP Offices" (not commercial third parties); and the public UI has been hardened with CAPTCHAs that block automated access.

§2 What's unique here

  • Madrid IRs in a unified search — search Madrid IRs alongside national TMs without per-office plumbing.
  • Article 6ter state emblems / IGO marks — also reachable via the Article 6ter Express API separately (wipo-patentscope.md §3).
  • National TMs from offices that don't have their own public API — the long-tail value.

§3 Programmatic surfaces

Public Global Brand DB web UI

Field Value
Endpoint https://branddb.wipo.int/
Auth none for casual UI use
Format HTML
Rate limit UI throttle + AltCha proof-of-work CAPTCHA on every page load (observed 2026-05-16)
Cap 180 results downloadable per query
ToS posture Explicit prohibition on automated queries (same identical language as PATENTSCOPE ToS)
Verdict (zero-infra proxy) 🔴 Red — ToS prohibits the access pattern; CAPTCHA enforces it
Primary source Global Brand Database Terms of Use

idAPI 188 — restricted to collaborating offices

The one Brand DB API in WIPO's official catalog is gated to IP offices that have signed collaboration agreements with WIPO. Not available to commercial third parties.

Field Value
Endpoint listed in WIPO API Catalog as idAPI 188
Auth IP-office collaboration agreement required
Verdict 🔴 Red — eligibility-gated; not available to us
Primary source WIPO API Catalog — search for "Brand Database"

Undocumented public-api.branddb.wipo.int

An AWS API Gateway endpoint at this URL responds with "Missing Authentication Token" — the standard AWS error for an authenticated endpoint hit without credentials. This strongly suggests WIPO is building a partner API program that hasn't been announced yet.

Field Value
Endpoint https://public-api.branddb.wipo.int/ (undocumented; AWS API Gateway)
Status Endpoint exists; auth required; no public documentation
Verdict ⏳ Watch — no current path, but signals future opening
Primary source Observed 2026-05-16 — waves/2026-05-16-registered-ip-discovery/wipo-global-databases.md §"Surprises"

§4 Fees

Madrid System filing fees (the source of most Brand DB records) live with the Madrid System, not Brand DB.

Madrid System fees: WIPO — Madrid System fees Fee Calculator: WIPO Madrid Fee Calculator

Brand DB access fees: no fee for the public UI; no documented paid tier (unlike PATENTSCOPE's SOAP/SFTP products). Access is gated by eligibility (collaborating IP offices), not payment.

§5 Access via patent-client-agents

What we cover today

  • No Brand DB access. Madrid IRs are reachable transitively when a national TM connector includes them in its scope (e.g., EUIPO returns Madrid-IR-designating-EU TMs in its search results).

What we should NOT add (and why)

  • Public UI scraping — ToS prohibits; CAPTCHA enforces. Even if technically bypassed, it's a contract violation.
  • idAPI 188 connector — restricted to collaborating IP offices; we are not eligible.

What to monitor

  • public-api.branddb.wipo.int — undocumented endpoint suggests WIPO is building a partner program. Highest-leverage watch item for trademark coverage. If WIPO opens a commercial partner tier, this becomes the trademark analogue of EPO INPADOC.
  • TMview API — EUIPO operates TMview as a federated frontend over national TM registers. If TMview gains a public API, it could be the practical TM aggregator. Currently HTML-only; not API-accessible. See COVERAGE_STRATEGY.md §8 (open questions) for the TMview research target.

Next steps

  1. Quarterly recheck of WIPO API Catalog for new Brand DB tier announcements.
  2. Quarterly recheck of public-api.branddb.wipo.int for documentation publication.
  3. Consider direct outreach to apiteam@wipo.int (or equivalent) for partner-tier inquiry if a paying customer needs Madrid + national TM aggregation badly.

§6 Known unknowns

  • public-api.branddb.wipo.int partner program — what's the eligibility model? When does it open?
  • idAPI 188 eligibility expansion — will WIPO extend Brand DB API access beyond collaborating IP offices?
  • TMview API roadmap — does EUIPO plan to expose TMview programmatically?

§7 References

Primary sources only.

System overview:

ToS:

Madrid System (the source of most Brand DB records):

Article 6ter (sibling dataset):

Detail survey + wave:

Last updated 2026-05-16.