Ecuador Change in annuity payment system On June 01, 2010 the Ecuadorian PTO increased the official fees and also established new rules regarding annuities. These new rules are quite controversial and have raised several questions...

Argentina Tribunal of Second Instance reverse a ruling and finds patent infringed awarding monetary damages This is a very relevant local ruling given the very small number of final decisions issued by the competent Court of Appeals over patent infringement, which has not reached even...

Worldwide Fight against piracy: creation of an online web platform The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced last April the creation of an online web platform in order to contribute to the fight against piracy,...

Argentina New Disposition for filing of Divisional Patent Applications On July 15th, 2010, Disposition 147/2010 will enter into force, which rules the filing of divisional patent applications and limits considerably the possibility of filing such applications...

Argentina Renewal Proceedings: New Disposition No. M-520/10 Owner inconsistencies in trademark renewal proceedings must be amended with the pertinent documents showing the legitimacy of the applicant who filed the trademark renewal. The legitimacy must exist before...

Puerto Rico Enactment of new TM Law A new trademark Law was enacted on December 16, 2009, by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, revoking the former TM Law of 1991...

Chile The new Intellectual Property Law entered into force last April One of the most important inclusions is a chapter concerning the responsibility of the Internet Service Providers (ISP) regarding the information/material published by users that might infringe the...

Argentina New Law about Mediation Procedure and Conciliation On May 6, 2010, Law No. 26589 regarding Mediation Procedure and Conciliation, which (according to the local legislation) are mandatory steps before any legal action is started,...

Colombia Controlled Parallel imports of pharmaceuticals and medical devices On April 21, 2010, the Colombian Ministry of Health issued Decree 1313 setting forth the mechanisms for private and public actors to require a controlled parallel importation into Colombia of...

Brazil Cotton case: Brazil suspends cross-retaliate against U.S. intellectual property rights after reaching a provisional agreement On April 6, 2010, the governments of Brazil and the U.S. reached a preliminary agreement on that avoided (or, properly speaking, delayed) the entrance in force...

Mexico Counterfeiting: recent approval of a reform in criminal matters The Chamber of Deputies has recently approved a reform in criminal matters, which authorizes the Public Ministry to initiate preliminary investigations ex-officio regarding those who are engaged in practices of...

Honduras New measures for National Phase of PCT Applications The Honduran PTO has informed about the following measures taken in connection with patent applications filed as National phase of a PCT application:...

Peru Accession to the Hague Apostille On November 9th, 2009, the Congress approved Peru's accession to the Hague Apostille Convention. Although this country was already a member of the Hague Conference, it had not signed...

Dominica Publication of New Proceedings As per notification of January 25th last, The Dominica's Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property, has provided a list of items and proceedings that must be now officially published:...

Brazil New Law about Musical Works The Federal Law 12.192, dated January 14th 2010, establishes that it is mandatory to make a legal deposit at the National Library of every musical work in the Portuguese...

Brazil Retaliation on IP rights CAMEX, the Brazilian governmental authority in charge of foreign trade policy, has published Resolution No. 16 submitting to public consultation a proposal for the institution of a set of...

Chile Harmless disclosure Due to continuing requests from applicants regarding advice, on February 4th, 2010, the Chilean PTO issued a circular letter in order to clarify the scope of so-called harmless disclosure, as...

Bolivia Fees reduction for second-level domains .bo As from april 1, 2010 NIC Bolivia has sensibly reduced its fees for second-level domains ".bo"...

Colombia Second Level domain name registration “.CO”, opened for Colombian or worldwide registered trademarks The Colombian Domain Administration has recently opened the second level domain registration under the extension “.co” for trademarks registered world widely before July 30, 2008...

Mexico Linkage Regulations A decision of the Mexican Supreme Court stated that the linkage system between the Mexican Patent Office (IMPI) and the Mexican Health Authority (COFEPRIS) should not...

Colombia Possible accession to the Madrid Protocol Last December 2, 2009 the Colombian Senate approved Bill 277/2009 calling for accession to the Madrid Protocol. To become effective, the approval by the House of Representatives is still required...

Guatemala Renewal of Slogan The actual law established that all slogans executed conforming to the previous laws will be due when ten years are accomplished up to the legal effect of this law...

Brazil Proposed reform of copyright law in Brazil Brazil launched a public discussion project to amend its copyright law. ...

Argentina NIC - New rules Last November 25th, 2009, Resolution 654/09, which approves new rules for the registration of domain names under the country code top-level domain .ar (cctld .ar), –...

Argentina NIC - Data update and/or Regularization until March 1st, 2010 to avoid cancellations of Registrant Entities and their registered Domains NIC Argentina will implement in 2010 a new registration and administration system for domain names. Therefore, each Registrant Entity will have to regularize the data registered in NIC Argentina’...

Argentina New law extends protection term of phonograms and interpretations from 50 to 70 years The Law regarding the inclusion of Section 5 bis in Law 11723 on Intellectual Property has been approved last November 25th. This new law extends protection terms of phonograms...

Argentina Amendment of Criminal Code to include counterfeiting of medicines On November, 4, 2009, the Argentine Congress enacted Federal Law No. 26.524 that modifies the Criminal Code in order to include counterfeiting medicines, among the conducts prohibited...

Guatemala Adoption of the 9th Edition of the Nice Classification The Official Newspaper in Guatemala published on June 22nd, decision 443-2009 taken by the Ministry of Economy, which enables the TM Office to use the 9th Edition of the Nice...

Argentina New Decree for Protecting Geographical Indications and Appellations of Origin. On May 18, Decree No. 556/2009 regarding Geographical Indications (GIs) and appellations of Origin (A.O.) of Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs, that rules Law...

Peru Multi-class TM applications now possible The Peruvian TM Office (INDECOPI) now allows the possibility of applying for a trademark in several classes of goods and/or services by filing just one application. Even...

Mexico .mx domain extension is available As from September 1st, until October 31, 2009 there is an initial registration stage, within which an .mx domain extension is available for any applying person or organization, provided...

Argentina Possible switch in the chronological order for substantial examination The Argentine Patent Office is considering issuing a Resolution in the near future, according to which, it will be possible to switch the chronological order for substantial examination between two...

Dominica Examination of the trademark law Ten years following its enactment, Dominica put into force on 2nd February, 2009, its Marks, Collective Marks and Trade Names Act 1999. The dual system of local and UK-based...

Peru Patent Cooperation Treaty Since June 6th, 2009 Peru has been member of the PCT. ...

Chile Patent Cooperation Treaty Since June 2nd, 2009 Chile has been member of the PCT...

Venezuela New requirement for filing trademarks: Mandatory similar availability search Continuing with the sequence of changes suffered recently by Venezuelan TM Law and practice please be now informed that through Official Notice dated May 4th 2009, SAPI (Venezuelan Trademarks...

Argentina Limits for the Registration of Domain Names. Taking into account the large amount of domain names registered by each person or entity, and in order to avoid this kind of abusive behavior; the Network Information Center...

Argentina Industrial Designs entered the National Customs Warning System. On May 26th, the Official Gazette published a notice informing that the National Customs Headquarter also authorizes industrial model and design holders to verify all goods entering into Argentine territory...

Argentina Resolution P-125/2009: Speed up of granting procedure of patent applications. The Argentine Patent Office has issued Resolution P-125/2009, which extends the provisions of Resolution P-263/2009 to all patent applications filed up to May 22, 2009, for which the examination procedure...

Aruba Official fees and new procedures The Bureau for Intellectual Property has raised the official fees by 13% approx. This rise has been in force since June 1st, 2009, together with a provision of new...

Brazil Official Fees The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office has announced that the official fees have been raised since June 1st, 2009...

Venezuela Main differences between the Decision 344 and 486 of the Andean Community and the IP Law of 1955 After the publication of the withdrawal decision, a group of Agents filed a claim against it, requesting the suspension of its legal effects. On November 10, 2008 the answer provided...

Argentina Locarno's Clasification On September 12, 2008, Law 26.042 came into force, which approves the International Classification for Industrial Designs under the Locarno Agreement, concluded in Locarno (Switzerland) on October...

Argentina Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) On April 9th 2008 Resolution 616/2008 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was approved. This resolution incorporates the multilingual characters “á”,“â”, “ã”, “...

Venezuela Back to Industrial Property Law of 1955? The Venezuelan TM office (SAPI) published on September 17th last, a short notice informing that Venezuela restored the application of the Industrial Property Law of 1955, thus turning...

Chile Deferment of publication of patent applications for up to 18 months counted as from the filing date of the priority application! Through a circular letter, the Chilean Patent Office has introduced the possibility of requesting the deferment of the publication for a term of up to 18 months counted as from...

Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and PeruAbout the Adequation of Decisión 486 of the Andean Community1 On August 13th 2008, The Commission of the Andean Community has issued Decision 689 which allows adequating certain provisions of Decision 486 granting rights to each country member...

Argentina New resolution to reduce the backlog of pending patent applications The Argentine Patent Office has issued Resolution No. 178/08 requiring patent applicants claiming priority under the Paris Convention that were filed before January 1, 2008, to...

Chile Mandatory indication of goods and/or services in trademark applications. Please be informed that as a result of the New Chilean Industrial Property Law, which entered in force in December 2005, trademark applications and renewal applications should include the specific...

Argentina New Resolution creates a “TMs and COPYRIGHT PROTECTION at local customs through a WARNING SYSTEM”. On Feb. 26, 2007 Resolution 2216 of the Federal Administration of Public Income (Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos) was published in the Official Bulletin. This resolution...

Colombia Colombia adopts the E-filing system On October 2nd 2007 the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce regulated the External Circular Nº06 that implemented an on-line filing system for names of origin, trademarks, leitmotivs, names and commercial...

Colombia Trademark Office rejects trademark oppositions based on Venezuelan registries By means of Resolution 14583 (23 May 2007), the CTO rejected a trademark opposition against a Colombian trademark application based on a prior Venezuelan registration. The...

Argentina Access Strasbourg Agreement concerning the international patent classification On September 13, 2007, the Government of the Argentine Republic deposited the instrument of accession to the Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification of March 24, 1971, as amended...

Peru New Policies regarding dispute resolution system in Domain Names In December 2007, new domain name registration policies entered into force, which established a new mecanism of dispute resolutions.This system introduces the principles from WIPO´s Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy,...

Argentina Argentina adopted the 9th Edition of the Nice Classification On November 30, 2007, the National Institute of Industrial Property decided to adopt the 9th Edition of the Nice Agreement concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for...

Uruguay Speed up of granting procedure of patent applications It will be possible to speed up the granting procedure of Uruguayan patent applications for which a corresponding patent has been granted by the European Patent Office. ...

Paraguay New System at Paraguayan Customs On January 2nd 2008, the Paraguayan National Customs Direction publicly reported about the implementation of the registration of trademarks and other IP rights in a new system at customs...