Latin America - Case studies

The Croatian SME “SUCHOC”, a producer of artisanal chocolates, filed a trademark application before the National Service of Intellectual Property of Bolivia (SENAPI), in order to protect its brand “KEKSI” in Bolivia – but did so without conducting a prior trademark search.

Erik, a young Spanish chef living in Madrid, had been carrying out gastronomic and scientific research related to the properties of Bolivian highlands food products, and announced that he had finished his first draft of a book on the subject.

Uniseliz, SARL, a French SME focused on the importation of alcoholic beverages, signed an international sales agreement with a Cuban export company. The Cuban company agreed on selling a large number of “Sierra Madre” rum bottles. The trade mark of this rum was registered in the European Union.

A young group of Dutch researchers created a start-up company called “LinkBro” within the field of telecommunications. The core of the business focused on a new payment technology for mobile phones, which was protected after filing an international application in the Netherlands Patent Office.

Bavarian Designs GmbH is a German SME involved in the design of containers in the food industry.

ARMAGE2 is a Spanish company that produces farming mechanical tools and owns patents and utility models concerning some of their technology, which they have registered in Europe, Argentina and Brazil. Their Argentinean supplier offered to start distributing two patented products in Uruguay.

The Spanish SME Tortillas Bravas, S.L. owned the word trade mark LA GRAN BRAVA in Spain. The company decided to register this trade mark abroad too, in particular in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Chile.

An Italian company, Franklin & Marshall S.R.L., decided to enter the Peruvian market and applied for the registration of its trade mark MMM&F, for clothing, footwear and headwear (Class 25).

Tour S.L. is a Spanish company that provides tailor-made fishing tours in Spain.
After a year of good results while running the business in Argentina, there was an increased interest in the fishing tour package offers in the Patagonian region.

A well-known German manufacturer of automotive headlights, “Xell”, identifies its products with the trade mark “OW” (OktoberWagen). A Brazilian company named Yois, engaged in the production and distribution of automotive parts, began negotiations with Xell to become the licensee of "OW" in Brazil.

Esprimere, an Italian coffee shop, has registered their trade mark ‘PronTissimo’ (word mark) and their logo (figurative mark) with their national IP office. The company contacted local IP lawyers from Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, since they are planning to expand to these three countries.

João is a Portuguese blogger who has gained increasing reputation in the media sector. He publishes content, such as images, texts or videos on his blog under a Creative Commons BY (attribution) – NC (non-commercial) licence.

GalakTic, an Irish SME engaged in the beverage industry, has been successfully commercialising their drink in Europe for 5 years. They have decided to launch their product in Mexico. The distinctive shape of the bottle and the brand name used in Europe are to be used in Mexico too.

Based in Cork, Brenan LTD is an Irish manufacturer popular among the English and Irish consumers for its kitchen tools. The company is commercialising a new product, which is expected to be released in Mexico soon through a local distributor.

The French company “Louis Pingouin”, famous for its leather accessories (purses, shoes, wallets among others) has registered its trademark in almost all Latin American countries, including Colombia.

Lope & James SPRL, a Belgian prêt-à-porter company, launched their collection ‘Montagnes’. This collection contained a 2-D monogram incorporated into textiles produced on an industrial scale.

Underground Kingdom S.L. is a Spanish company involved in the audiovisual business. The company filed an application to protect their trade mark in Europe and it was granted in July. As a part of their latest documentary, they wanted to include Brazilian music artists.

Bravka, a Slovenian SME in the agriculture sector, developed an innovative technology to protect crops from frost. In 1991, one of the affected farmers decided to create a method to control frosts more efficiently and economically. The resulting machine was inspired by a hard frost that affected pla

Pickup’s World, Ltd. is an SME established in Dublin and founded by three industrial engineers, who shared a common passion: vehicle designing.

RedSquare, a video game company headquartered in France, created the now famous psychological horror game “Visage” back in 2017.

A Portuguese entrepreneur engaged in negotiations with a Brazilian company in pursuit of a joint effort in an innovation-related project.

The EU SME was aware of the importance of IP protection, and decided to register the German SME ‘Fordermorder GmbH’ company's name and logo as trade marks, as well as the name of
their star product “Zeit”.

BleuBlancRouge, a French pharmaceutical SME, owns multiple patents, one of which was registered in Brazil through the Patent Cooperation Treaty. BleuBlancRouge has now signed a patent licence agreement with a Brazilian company and has decided to include an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clause

The German SME Recht attended the 2018 Bernie Fit edition in Brazil, an annual trade fair where sporting goods and fitness are exhibited. Among other products, Recht presented a new Pilates reformer machine: the Zen model.

Mercadodepulgas.com is a successful Spanish start-up that runs an online platform where users can buy and sell second-hand products. Sofas, bikes, electronic devices and the like are exchanged in the platform.

ZenZit is a Spanish medium-sized company in the toy sector that has a strong presence in Europe and several Latin American countries through distribution agreements.

Trisk Motor AG., a German SME producing spare parts for vehicles, is introducing its business in the Latin American market. In order to do so, they registered their trademark “TriskMotor” (Wordmark) in Peru, Argentina and Brazil within Class 12 of the Nice Classification.

Oval Shoes is a European SME based in Sweden and specialised in the design and manufacture of high-quality shoes. Largely, their success has been due to the good quality of their shoes, achieved with the use of a special technique for the treatment of the leather with which they are manufactured.

DynaMeds, a Danish SME that develops packaging for drugs and medicines, was willing to expand its business to Colombia, Chile and Mexico, as these markets looked very promising for their products and services.

Flancox, a Bulgarian company focused on food packaging products, developed a new, unique packaging with different fruit shapes. The production costs were higher than expected. Hence, the SME’s CEOs had to reduce costs in other areas, particularly in intellectual property (IP) protection.

Sam and Daisy, two young French artists, started negotiations with Cherryland, a well-known Ecuadorian company that organises outdoor activities.

Vittorio Brothers is a small family company located in the region of Parma in Italy. The establishment has produced Parmigiano Reggiano cheese for around a decade and they export their products to several countries, including the Dominican Republic.

Over the last years, the Spanish brewery Aqua&Terra has capitalised on the current craft beer boom in Europe by successfully producing and distributing its star brand “Veralinda".

Laranjon is a European SME operating from Italy which focuses on the fashion industry. The marketing department of the company launched the new spring-summer campaign.