Rather than a registry of original registration, the Cayman Islands registry serves to extend patent and trademark rights that have been registered in other jurisdictions. In other words, only those rights registered first in jurisdictions prescribed by law may be registered in (extended to) the Cayman Islands.

Until early 1998, only United Kingdom and Madrid Protocol (with UK designation) trademark rights and United Kingdom and European patents were acceptable for extension to the Cayman Islands. However, recognizing the advantage to its clients to be able to extend European Community trademark rights to the Cayman Islands, legislation was introduced in 1998 to allow EC trademarks to be extended to Cayman. Such legislation has led to an added advantage due to the reciprocal treatment the Cayman Islands accords to EC trademarks.