La Feria tuvo como objetivo que tanto instituciones privadas como públicas muestren a los estudiantes de la Universidad Católica y de otras universidades cuáles son sus opciones profesionales actuales y futuras, y así motivarlos a planificar su carrera en función de su vocación y posibilidades.

Fue organizada por la Vocalía Académica de Derecho UC, el Centro de Alumnos de Derecho UC (CADe) y la Consejera de Facultad.

Ver nota de Derecho UC

The national institution in charge of this work is the Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), through its operative unit called “Colección Chilean de Recursos Genéticos Microbianos” (CChRGM).

This designation, both for our country and the Latin America region, means an important enhancement of the scientific innovation in Chile and in the region, which surely will facilitate the patenting of such matters, since it introduces the potential inventions to the patent system from the same country, and so reduces the number of deposits to be performed in all the countries where the protection is pursued.

It is important to point out that this designation inserts Chile into a selected group of 38 international deposit authorities, in charge of the storing of microorganisms for patenting purposes.

To learn more, write to Pilar Chicago, at patents@alessandri.cl

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El ente encargado de llevar a cabo esta labor a nivel nacional, es el Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIA), a través de su unidad operativa “Colección Chilena de Recursos Genéticos Microbianos (CChRGM).

Esta designación, tanto para nuestro país como para la región, significará un importante reconocimiento a la innovación científica, a nivel local como regional, dado que facilitará el patentamiento de este tipo de materias, al introducir sus inventos al sistema de patentes desde un solo país, reduciendo el número de depósitos por realizar en todos los países donde se busca su protección.

Es importante destacar que a partir de este nombramiento Chile forma parte de un selecto grupo de 38 autoridades internacionales de depósito, encargados de almacenar  microorganismos con fines de patentamiento.

Leer artículo de Inapi sobre este tema.

Más información, escriba a Pilar Chicago a patents@alessandri.cl

Este trámite, aparentemente sencillo en las palabras de la ley, requiere de una cuota de responsabilidad y perseverancia por parte de los empresarios y de sus contadores.

Cristóbal Riffo es Abogado de la Universidad de Chile, magíster en Derecho de la Empresa de la Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez y magíster en Tributación Internacional de la Universidad de Florida, Estados Unidos. Actualmente dirige el área tributaria de Alessandri & Compañía.

Read complete article here

Read all INTA Daily News 2013 in PDF here

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are cracking down on trademark squatters, combating pirates with tougher border measures and expanding IP rights to bring them in line with those in more developed countries. In particular, well-known and famous brands are gaining increased protection in Latin America as a result of international agreements and precedents set by recent cases.

Thwarting trademark squatters in Chile

In Chile, a new bill being considered by the country’s Congress aims to increase protection for brand owners but may meet with objections on constitutional grounds. The Chilean Industrial Property Law, which was published in March 2005, would bring the country’s law into line with international treaties, including the TRIPS agreement. “This new law will change many very important aspects of the current law,” says Rodrigo Velasco Santelices of Alessandri in Chile, who will be focusing on the proposed legislation during today’s session.

The law would introduce use as a requirement for maintaining ownership of a trademark. At present, Chile is one of few countries which do not have this requirement. The new legislation would allow anyone to file a cancellation action against a trademark on the grounds of non-use. Velasco says this aspect of the law will have important consequences for brand owners, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry.

In Chile, it is common practice to register and not use a trademark. “This has also unfortunately helped trademark piracy,” says Velasco. “If you don’t have use requirements it’s very easy to obtain a trademark registration because the legitimate owner of that trademark can’t file a cancellation due to non-use. I think this amendment has the intention of fighting piracy.”

The practice of registering a trademark with no intent to use it in the foreseeable future was partly due to the fact that historically, it took a long time to register a trademark—as long as four to five years if appeals were filed.The law requires certain types of products, such as new drugs, to have a corresponding trademark registered before they are launched. As a result, pharmaceutical companies have many stock trademarks registered.

In recent years, the Chilean government has made efforts to improve the efficiency of the registration process. The Chilean trademark office has now been separated from other branches of the government and given more resources, and it is now possible to file trademark applications online. Velasco says that an application without objections is now typically granted within a year. In a few cases, he has seen a registration completed in as little as eight to 10 months from the filing date.

The new law would also allow marks that are not intrinsically distinctive to be registered if they have acquired distinctiveness through use in the Chilean market; boost protection for famous marks and allow certain nontraditional marks to be registered for the first time; and expand protections for geographic indications and designations of origin, which were previously limited to the wine industry.

In addition, it would allow brand owners to register 3D, color, smell and sound trademarks. At present, sound marks can only be registered if they can be represented graphically as a musical score. “If the new law is approved, people could obtain registrations for simple sounds such as the noise of a HARLEY DAVIDSON motorcycle, which is a trademark in the United States,” says Velasco. “Up until now, it wouldn’t have been possible to register that sound as a trademark in Chile.”

07 de Mayo de 2013

Fuente: www.inapi.cl

La nueva normativa busca darle un mayor impulso al emprendimiento y la innovación en nuestro país, mejorando y actualizando la protección, los procedimientos y el sistema de observancia de marcas, patentes de invención, modelos de utilidad y diseños industriales.

Este 26 de abril, junto a la conmemoración del Día Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual 2013, se celebró también en Chile una esperada noticia: el ingreso del nuevo Proyecto de Ley sobre Propiedad Industrial al Congreso Nacional.

El envío de este proyecto constituye un fuerte impulso para el emprendimiento y la innovación en nuestro país, ya que lo que busca es mejorar la protección, los procedimientos y el sistema de observancia de los derechos de propiedad industrial -marcas, patentes de invención, modelos de utilidad y diseños industriales-, reemplazando a la antigua Ley del año 1991, por una normativa moderna y eficiente.

Al respecto, el Director Nacional de INAPI, Maximiliano Santa Cruz, destacó que “la propiedad industrial en Chile está en un proceso de profunda transformación, y esta noticia representa un avance concreto en esa dirección. Esta ley permitirá simplificar procedimientos, reducir costos y acortar los plazos de tramitación, en beneficio directo de los emprendedores e innovadores de nuestro país”.

El Subsecretario de Economía, Tomás Flores, señaló por su parte que “el envío del Proyecto de Ley de Propiedad Industrial es una gran noticia para este Año de la Innovación, pues permitirá a los chilenos acceder a una normativa con mayores garantías y certezas jurídicas, facilitando y fomentando el uso de la Propiedad Industrial en beneficio del desarrollo del país”.

LAS CLAVES DE LA LEY

La actual Ley N° 19.039 de Propiedad Industrial fue promulgada en 1991 y modificada posteriormente en los años 2005, 2007 y 2012 en respuesta a los compromisos internacionales contraídos, particularmente de los ADPIC y tratados de libre comercio. Si bien en su origen fue considerada un ejemplo de modernidad, con el paso de los años y los avances de la técnica y el comercio muchos de los procedimientos que contiene se han vuelto obsoletos.

Así, el nuevo Proyecto de Ley busca cumplir los fines de incentivar la innovación, transferir el conocimiento y permitir a los consumidores distinguir de mejor manera productos y servicios en el mercado. Se estructura en torno a tres ejes:

El primero de ellos, es fortalecer la protección de los derechos de propiedad industrial, a través de la regulación de nuevos tipos de protección, como son las nuevas categorías de marcas, y la reformulación de las materias de exclusión de protección, ya sea de marcas o patentes.

Asimismo, busca mejorar los procedimientos de registro de los derechos. Tramitaciones dilatadas pueden producir que los derechos de los interesados no sean oportunamente resguardados.

Finalmente, el proyecto busca fortalecer las normas de observancia, debido a que es necesario que existan los mecanismos para asegurar el cumplimiento de las normas de propiedad industrial conforme a nuestra realidad nacional.

En definitiva, la nueva Ley de Propiedad Industrial es un fuerte impulso para el emprendimiento de todos los innovadores y creativos de nuestro país, mejorando la protección, los procedimientos y el sistema de observancia de los derechos de propiedad industrial.

Wednesday, 1 May 2013 by Marieke Breijer

There was a time when a Latin American law firm would be identified by the names of its founding partners. While some attention might have been paid to the font on the letterhead, and later the website, the firm’s image was largely defined by the reputation of the names above the door.

Today, logos are becoming an increasingly relevant component of a firm’s marketing strategy: the choice of words, the font and its colour are deliberated over at length to ensure the logo conveys the firm’s culture, service style and position in the market. Consider the logos of Latin American firms that have recently undergone a rebranding strategy: from Colombia’s prietocarrizosa, which has merged the founding partners’ names into one word, written entirely in lowercase in a font and colour that evokes the youth and trailblazing brand of facebook, to Brazilian firm Veirano Advogados’ new logo, which consists of a three-dimensional VA symbol that continues to show the firm initials whatever its position, demonstrating the firm’s global outlook and flexibility. The logo is black, white and grey to indicate tradition and trustworthiness.

Alessandri is celebrating 120 years in the Chilean legal market this year and is one of the few centenarian firms in Latin America. While “proud of the firm’s history” and indeed his ancestors who founded the firm, managing partner Arturo Alessandri says the firm was keen to move away from its traditional image. “The way of practising law has changed in 120 years and we believe that we came up with a brand strategy evolving with the times,” he explains. “We have this very strong prestige linked to a very solid past, but at the same time we wanted to add the future, and innovative solutions in adding value to our services.” Through this process, the firm also sought to include its tax and environmental consultancy branches under the same moniker and present a unified Alessandri group to the market. The new branding was therefore geared towards showing “who we are, what we do, and where we are going,” says Alessandri.

Making the switch

Alessandri’s former and new logo 

The launch of the brand can be as important as the brand itself, and firms need to plan the process carefully. At Alessandri, the new branding is being rolled out gradually over the year as the firm celebrates its 120th anniversary, while at Veirano, a note announcing its new image popped up to visitors of the firm’s website. For Posse Herrera, the switch took place in one weekend, says Herrera: “We timed everything from when the new webpage was going to be available, how the signatures would appear on the Monday morning, all correspondence, templates… really, everything changed in that weekend. If you arrived at 8am on Monday morning, the logo was the new one, the chocolates on the conference tables were the new ones – the old ones were given away to all the lawyers Friday afternoon on the condition that they had to be eaten by Sunday.

Despite the time it may take and the effort involved going forward, firms maintain it’s a worthwhile process. “[It] is something that every law firm should look at at a certain point,” says Alessandri. “The process of the rebranding is very positive; it gives you a lot of knowledge. The internal diagnosis, the learning process – very positive ideas come out of it.” Del Rio, too, praises the results: “It helped us to focus on how we were viewed by clients and how we wanted to be viewed by them, and helped us very much. It feels like a new era for the firm.” A firm logo and branding approach, however, won’t last forever. A firm’s distinguishing feature today might not be the same tomorrow, and strong branding knows continuity yet evolves with time – if centenarian firms Basham, Olaechea and Alessandri’s longevity continues, chances are these new logos won’t be their last.

Read the complete article in Latin Lawyer