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News article10 October 2022

Andean Community nations are interested in more countries joining the bloc

The Presidents of the Andean Community (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), have shared their interest in Venezuela, Chile and Argentina to join the group.

Formed in 1969, by the Cartagena Agreement, the Andean Community was already joined in 1973 by both Chile and Venezuela, though they withdrew afterwards, for different reasons. The experience show that countries can return to its structure, as it was the case for Peru, who suspended its membership in 1992, but rejoined in 1997.

As to the importance to IP, if these countries joined the bloc: 

CAN’s scope includes areas such as customs, democracy, education, the environment, energy, investment, trade, and Intellectual Property.

The main IPR-related Decision in the Andean Community is Decision 486—Common Provisions on Industrial Property. This decision contains two features of particular interest, one called the “Andean Opposition” and the other one called the “Andean Use”. The former gives any person having a TM registered (or filed) in a single country of the AC, the grounds to oppose to a filing in any other country of the AC. The latter enables the owner of a TM used in one country of the AC, to claim such use against any third party pursuing a cancellation action against that mark in a different country of the AC. 

To read more, please refer to Reuters.

Details

Publication date
10 October 2022