As mentioned a few days ago on the post Major reform of Industrial Property in Chile, the current Chilean law on trademarks is going to make several changes in the coming months. These changes will be defined more precisely in the parliamentary debate on the proposed new property law.
Before these changes enter into force, let’s show a summary of the current features of trademarks law in Chile.
The recent Chile’s participation and signature of mayor international treaties, has forced to adapt formal requirements when filing a trademark application. While, until a few years ago, Chile was a very bureaucratic country where power of attorneys had to be signed and legalized before the Consulate, nowadays no notarization or legalization is required. The rapidity of business needed this change in order to prevent the procedures to extend in time for purely bureaucratic considerations.
Registered trademarks right in Chile: distinctive features
- The administrative authority responsible for the management of industrial property rights in Chile is the National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI).
- Filing of trademarks can be done both on paper and electronic version. In Protectia, all the procedures made before the INAPI are handled electronically, as our commitment to the environment.a presentación de las marcas puede hacerse tanto en papel como en versión electrónica.
- Once filed, the trademark shall be examined from a formal point of view (payment of the fee, goods and services, description of the trademark). After passing this examination, the trademark is accepted for publication, moment which opens a period of within 20 working- days to make the payment of the publication in the Official Journal. In case of non-payment, the trademark shall be considered abandoned.
- The publication allows third parties to file opposition within 30 working-days which may consider their prior rights are infringed by the registration of the applied for trademark. INAPI itself will solve the opposition after a written and contradictory procedure between the parties. If the opposition is uphold and therefore the application is rejected, it is possible to appeal before the Industrial Property Tribunal (IPT) within 15 days. This judicial authority is a special court, since its functions are limited to solve in appeal the INAPI administrative decisions, so it only hears cases of industrial property. Finally, it is possible to file a last appeal on the merits before the Supreme Court.
- Once the trademark is accepted for granting, it is necessary to pay the registration fees, so that the trademark is granted for a period of 10 years from the moment of registration. This 10-year period is renewable for similar periods as many times as needed. In case of non-payment, the trademark shall remain abandoned.
Protectia Patents and Trademark has a highly specialized professional team in the application, defence and renewal of trademarks in Chile, as well as legal representatives in Santiago de Chile itself, so the signing of a simple authorization of representation is enough to perform any task before the national authorities.
Are you interested in the registration of a Trademark in Chile?
