Easier procedures for Chile’s PTO | Chile
May 29th, 2012 by Danny G. Pérez y Soto - B&R Research
Source: www.prensa.cl
Chile’s PTO, INAPI, has released new regulation for intellectual property procedures. From May 23rd, the procedures of the Law 19.039 on Intellectual Property will be complemented to comply with the Trademark law Treaty (TLT), approved by Chile since August 5th 2011.
The new decree is meant to simplify procedures, to introduce electronic forms and to allow for POAs to be registered before the PTO to be used on several procedures, which wasn’t allowed under previous regulations.
The Trademark Law Treaty is a procedural treaty that aims at setting a standard for PTOs of contracting parties. For example, it establishes a maximum of requirements for trademark registration applications, and an obligation for Contracting Parties to allow applications related to goods and/or services belonging to several classes of the International Classification –Multiclass applications-. It also allows filing modifications to several registries with a single application; and standardizes the duration of the initial period of the registration and the duration of each renewal to 10 years each.
Additional obligations under the TLT include the possibility of POAs to be used for several applications by registering them before the PTO and, most notably, it forbids the requirement of attestation, notarization, authentication, legalization or certification of any signature, except when surrendering a registration.
Chile has been fulfilling such requirements by introducing law N° 20.569 and regulatory decrees, although some requirements haven’t been met, such as the possibility of presenting POAs without legalization for foreign applicants. More regulations are needed for the TLT to enter in full force in Chile.
To read the new decree, click here.
