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This report cannot be considered as legal or any other kind of advice by Allende & Brea. For any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

Argentine National Institute of Industrial Property: Modifications in the Opposition Resolution Procedure

According to Resolution P-295/2024 (hereinafter, “the Resolution”) published in the Official Gazette on July 23, 2024, applicants who have received oppositions from third parties against their trademark application must pay, on a mandatory basis, within 15 working days of being notified of the oppositions in force, the new fee determined by the National Directorate of Trademarks. The new Resolution provides that the fee must be paid by the applicant only once, for each trademark application, regardless of the number of oppositions it may have received.

It should be noted that the current regulations provide for applicants to be notified of the oppositions held so that they can respond to each of them and offer the evidence they deem relevant. However, experience shows that only a small number of applicants respond in a timely manner.

In summary, the recent Resolution provides that the failure to pay the above-mentioned fee will be considered by the Administration as a manifestation of the applicant’s lack of interest in continuing with its trademark application. Therefore, if the applicant does not make the payment within the deadline, the application will be rejected without further proceedings.

Finally, in view of the large number of oppositions pending to be resolved by the INPI, the new regulation incorporates a transitory clause whereby the Trademark Office is empowered to summon, by means of a provision to be published in the Trademark Bulletin, those applicants who have not responded to the opposition, to pay the corresponding fee within fifteen (15) working days.

By means of this Resolution, the Argentine Trademark Office intends to avoid a greater waste of resources, making progress only those trademark applications in which the owner has expressed his interest in continuing with the processing by responding to existing oppositions, by paying the corresponding fee.

This report cannot be considered as legal or any other kind of advice by Allende & Brea. For any questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

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