The trademark registration is carried out to guarantee the ownership of the distinctive sign. It allows to differentiate it from other products or services.
How to register a trademark? This is a simple procedure that can be carried out by any human or legal person, attorneys-in-fact or registered industrial property agents. Follow these 5 steps to register a trademark in Argentina:
- Investigate if the brand is available.
- Enter the procedures portal with your and complete the type of trademark, choose the class and inform about the ownership.
- Sign the trademark registration form electronically.
- Pay the process.
- Follow up on the request.
We invite you to continue reading this guide on trademark registration in Argentina. The process is not complex, but we advise you to review this article to have more information and move through the steps without problems.
Successfully completing your brand registration is a key aspect for everything, since it is the starting point that shapes a project and, from which, an aesthetic, business image, and identity are defined.
Why do I have to register a trademark?
The registration of trademarks and patents in Argentina has the objective of protecting your property. Only this procedure enables you to prevent third parties from marketing products or services with said sign or one very similar.
It is important to protect it through registration, because you will not be the owner of your brand until it is registered.
By registering a trademark you become the exclusive owner of it. With the registration, the trademark becomes a property for its owner, an asset and, as such, he can dispose of it as if it were any other asset: he can freely transfer it, or authorize or license its use to third parties, free of charge or for free. money exchange.
You can also exclude third parties from their use: many times the owners do not want their trademarks to be linked to certain products, events, political parties or artists, so they may not grant that authorization and prevent such use.
A very common form of trademark exploitation is to authorize the use through license or franchise contracts, allowing the brand owner a diffusion that he could not achieve alone or, at least, it would cost him more effort.
What can be registered as a trademark?
The trademark registration can be made of the following items:
- One or more words with or without conceptual content.
- Drawings; emblems; monograms; engravings; prints; seals; images; bands; combinations of colors applied in a certain place of the products or of the packaging.
- wrappers; packaging.
- Combinations of letters and numbers; letters and numbers for your special drawing; advertising phrases; reliefs.
These are just examples of possible registrations granted by the , but it must be borne in mind that, in reality, any sign can be registered as a trademark as long as it has distinctive capacity, that is, it identifies a product or service clearly distinguishing itself from its competitors.
Formally, the marks can be:
- Denominative: only words, letters or numbers and their combinations.
- Mixed: words plus a logo or design.
- Figurative: only one design.
- Three-dimensional: they consist of a three-dimensional format that refers to the shape of the product, that of its containers or wrappers. Said form cannot be registered as a trademark if it derives exclusively from the nature of the product.
- Sonorous: distinctive melodies or chords that can be represented graphically.
- Movements: movement or travel of certain objects.
- Olfactory: fragrances that must not be an inherent attribute or a natural quality of the product, but rather a characteristic provided by the applicant.
- Others: positional, tactile, color combination, business clothing.
Where to register trademarks in Argentina?
To tell you everything about how to register a trademark in Argentina, we are going to talk about the official entity in charge.
The National Institute of Industrial Property () is the state body responsible for the registration of trademarks and patents in Argentina.
When submitting the application, it must be taken into account that the scope of the right that one is going to have over the trademark that is going to be applied for is also being defined.
In other words, if the registration of the trademark is requested together with a logo, the protection of said trademark will be “tied” to that logo, that is, it will not be able to be modified in the future and, if it is , a new record must be started.
Therefore, to the extent that the logo does not identify the product or service itself (for example, the Nike symbol or the Puma puma), but is merely illustrative or decorative, it is convenient to register the brand as a denominative, since this alternative gives the freedom to later assign to that denomination the type of letter and colors that are desired.
So, how to register a trademark in Argentina? Let’s dive right into this topic.
How to make a trademark registration?
Before seeing in detail the steps you have to follow to register a trademark, we are going to share with you what are the prerequisites you need to meet to do it successfully.
- Declare an electronic legal address. To do this, I followed the instructions in the .
- Be of legal age, as stipulated in the Civil Code and Law 26,579.
- Have a level 2 fiscal key and link the INPI service to your AFIP account to register on the portal. .
With these requirements covered, you just have to follow these 5 steps to complete the trademark registration process:
- Investigate if the brand is available; To do this, you have to enter or request a search in the Technological Information area.
- Enter with your tax code and fill in the type of trademark, choose the class and inform about the ownership.
- Electronically sign the form.
- Pay the procedure, according to the instructions of .
- Track the request through the portal.
Keep in mind that you will receive an alphanumeric code by email so that you can download the digital property title when your trademark is granted.
Frequently asked questions about trademark registration
To close this practical guide on trademark registration in Argentina, we have selected four frequently asked questions on the subject and then we share the answers.
How to know if a brand name already exists?
You have three ways to find out:
- Access the area of and perform background tariff searches in national and international databases.
- Enter this and investigate on your own, free of charge.
- Use , a free-to-use platform that displays daily updated information on trademarks by participating national offices.
What are the costs to register a trademark?
The cost to carry out a trademark registration is $2210.00. In this link you can consult those from October 1, 2019.
How long does the trademark registration process take?
The registration of a trademark takes 24 months for applications that do not go through the simplified study stage and 12 months for those that do.
Enter to know more about the times of each stage of study of a brand.
Although it is possible to carry out the process on your own, it is not worth submitting the application if you are not going to be able to do the proper follow-up of the trademark registration (you are going to lose time and money!).
You can analyze the possibility of delegating the procedure to a specialist and have the peace of mind that the process is in expert hands.
When does a trademark expire?
All trademark registrations in Argentina are valid for 10 years from the date they are granted and can be renewed consecutively for the same term.
conclusion
Now that you know how to register trademarks and patents in Argentina, start your project and start selling online with Tiendanube. It’s very easy, you don’t need technical knowledge and you have 30 days free to try the platform.
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