2023: The year in review

 

Robert Pocklington Vicente

IP expert at the Latin America IP SME Helpdesk

 

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way... It’s about Christmas again! And what would Christmas be without Glühwein, Santa Claus, and the Latin America IP SME Helpdesk IP Yearly reviews?

This yearly article covers the main IP news and changes that happened in Latin America during the year 2023. These changes mostly benefit EU SMEs when internationalizing to this region, and that is why we are analising hereby certain decisions that achieved significant progress on this path towards the development of Intellectual Property in Latin America.

 

Industrial designs

- The main IP news this year, is surely Brazil joining the Hague Agreement, in August 2023. The Hague Agreement governs the international registration of industrial designs. It establishes an international system, the Hague System, which allows applicants to register an industrial design by filing a single application with the International Bureau of WIPO, allowing design owners to protect their designs with minimal formalities in more than 90 countries, representing 70% of foreign trade in the world. It also simplifies the registration of an industrial design since it is possible to record subsequent changes and renew international registration through a single procedure.          

- In Argentina, the National Institute of Industrial Property of Argentina (INPI) joined DesignClass in May 2023. With this decision, Argentina adopted the HDBPI list of terms in DesignClass.

 

Trade marks

- In June 2023, “partial revocation” for non-use of trade mark registration entered into force in Argentina. As of this date, trade marks that have not been used in the country for five (5) years prior to the beginning of the non-use cancellation action will be liable to invalidation.  

- In Paraguay, DINAPI (Paraguayan IP Office) implemented this year the use of EUIPO's TMclass system, a search tool for the classification of Goods and Services for trade mark protection purposes. Moreover, DINAPI Paraguay began to formalise the registration of sound marks thanks to OSN.

- As to the countries of the Andean Community (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia), the Andean opposition protocol for the management of Andean oppositions in trade mark matters came into operation in March 2023.            

- And last but not least, INDECOPI Peru has reduced to 25% the trade mark registration fee for micro and small companies.

 

Patents

- In August 2023, the Budapest Treaty entered into force in Paraguay. All states party to the Treaty are obliged to recognize microorganisms deposited as a part of the patent procedure, irrespective of where the depository authority is located. In practice, this means that the requirement to submit microorganisms to each national authority in which patent protection is sought no longer exists.

- Another exciting news comes from the EPO, which is in talks with Costa Rica to make Costa Rica a validation. What does this mean? At the request of an EP applicant, and on payment of the prescribed fee, European applications and patents can be validated in the validation state, where they will have the same effect as national applications and patents.

- INAPI Chile has provided this year to users with a new green patent program that reduces the average processing time.

Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)

What is a PPH? The Patent Prosecution Highway provides both IP offices with a faster response obtained from said entities, reducing the duplication of efforts, time, and processing costs to study the same patent application at both offices.

- As a result of the PPH pilot programme that started in January 2020, both Indecopi Peru (Instituto Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia y de la protección de la Propiedad Intelectual) and the EPO have just decided to make the PPH program permanent as of January 2023.

- INAPI Chile and the EPO have signed a Reinforced Partnership Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for 5 years. An agreement on a new PPH (Patent Prosecution Highway) between INAPI and the EPO

- Uruguay and Sweden agreed this year on a PPH pilot program

 

Copyright

- The main news this year in Copyright is that the Uruguayan government is considering a new copyright law that would require music streaming services to pay royalties to performers, in addition to the royalties they already pay to record labels and songwriters. This is known as "equitable remuneration" or "performer equitable remuneration.

 

Geographical indications

- In March 2023, the modernised EU-Chile agreements on wines, spirits, and aromatised wines went into effect, strengthening bilateral trade of these items and playing an important role in agricultural trade for both sides. The updated agreements are expected to make it easier to revise them in the future to better reflect changes in protected conditions of wines, aromatised wines, and spirits in Chile and the EU. Currently, the agreements include 1,573 wines and 235 spirit drinks and aromatised wines from the EU and 115 wines, and 10 spirit drinks and aromatised wines from Chile.

- In Brazil, the Senate approved the Mercosur agreement on GIs. Its main points to enhance the Mercosur GIs are:

a) Possibility of coexistence of two or more GIs on the same product or service;

b) recognized GIs will not be registrable as brands for similar products or services in member countries, except when the application for the trade mark registration is prior to the resolution of the GMC;

c) brands containing GIs will not be registered when their use constitutes an act of unfair competition or misleads the consumer.

 

Any other news

- Brazil and Colombia outperformed in the 11^th edition of the International IP Index. This Index evaluates the robustness and efficiency of intellectual property (IP) frameworks established by policymakers worldwide.

- INPI Brazil published its 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. Among the project's plan: the automation of the patent flow, the review of trade mark examination procedures, the quality of examination compliance, and putting into operation the Hague Agreement– as mentioned above–.

To access all our previous and this year’s IP yearly reviews, check our webpage: IP Yearly reviews.

 

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In a nutshell, we can claim that Latin American countries are increasingly committed to achieving improvements in their respective laws on Intellectual Property. If you don’t want to miss any of the future good news about IP in the region, we suggest that you subscribe to our newsletter.

Should you have any questions after reading the “2023 year in review” article, submit your inquiry to our Helpline service. It’s free, offered in English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese, and we answer you within 3 working days.