Last Thursday September 23 we organized a webinar in which we spoke about the Legal Regime on Trademarks of the Andean Community, some important pronouncements of each Member Country and from the Court of Justice of the Andean Community. We share 5 key ideas from that presentation:
1. The Andean Community is an international organization whose main objective is the andean integration process that includes the countries of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia. The Court of Justice of the Andean Community, one of its principal bodies, aims to declare the andean community law, settle disputes that arise from its application and interpret it in a uniform manner. In the latter case, pre-judicial interpretations, which also apply to Decision 486 – Common Regime on Industrial Property, are an important tool for cooperation between the judges or administrations of the Member Countries and the community judges.
2. If you wish to register a trademark in the Andean Community, it is necessary to register it in each Member Country (Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia) to obtain the respective protection. The legal figure of “Andean Community Trademark” is not regulated.
3. If you have a trademark registered or in process in a Member Country, it is possible that based on it, you may file an opposition (Andean) against an application that is beign processed in any other Member Country. To do this, you must additionally file your trademark application in such Member Country to meet the requirement of real interest.
4. Well-known trademarks have protection in the Member Countries of the Andean Community; thus, the principles of specialty, registration, territoriality, and effective use are broken. In this way, to protect a well-known trademark in a Member Country it is not necessary to have it registered there, nor in use in said territory, but to prove its notoriety based on evidence from any other Member Country of the Andean Community.
5. Non-traditional trademarks can be protected in the Andean Community. Therefore, it is possible to register sounds, colors, animated/moving marks, and in general, any sign that meets the requirements of distinctiveness (intrinsic and extrinsic) and graphic representation.