Colombia – Latam Guideline
- Home /
- Colombia – Latam Guideline
Trademarks
Patents
Designs
Customs
Data protection
Regulatory
Trademarks
WIPO-administered Treaties:
Contracting Party of the Madrid System: YES.
Trade Mark Law in force:
Decision 486 of the Andean Community. The Andean Pact Decision provides for one common trade mark law among the member countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru). It does not provide a common registration procedure, but it provides certain reciprocal rights to be available upon request of the trademark owner. For example, an entity that first applied for registration of a trademark in any Member Country, may lodge an opposition against a similar mark filed in the other Member Countries.
Classification:
Nice classification, 11th edition.
Multiclass Applications:
YES.
Registrable trademarks:
Words, names, acronyms, letters, numbers, devices, emblems, holograms, combinations or shades of colors, three-dimensional forms, the three-dimensional form of a good or its packaging, sound marks, and any combination of the aforementioned signs.
Formal filing requirements:
- Power of Attorney merely signed (no legalization and no notarization required) within 60 days from notification request. Unextendable
- Scanned copy of priority application and its translation into Spanish within 9 months from priority application date.
Examination:
Absolute grounds for refusal: YES.
Relative grounds for refusal: YES.
Opposition period:
30 days from publication date.
Average time from filing to grant:
Approximately 6 months, unless any obstacles were raised.
Term of protection:
10 years from the date of registration.
Use requirements:
YES. Cancellation can be requested if the trade mark has not been used for 3 years in any member state of the Andean Pact, counting from the registration date. Partial cancellation is possible. The cancellation can be requested if the trademark has not been used for a time period of 3 years, counting from the date of registration. Since this date, it has to be used constantly, except in case of force majeure or exceptional cases that would prevent you from using the trademark. The use of the trademark has to be done by the rights holder, a licensee, or any authorized person for it, in the Colombian market, or for exportation, and at least in one country of the Andean Community (CAN), that can be: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru or Bolivia. Using the trademark in any of the ways explained before would avoid any attempt to start a cancellation action against the trademark registration.
Proof of use is not required to obtain a registration. Nonetheless, after three years have elapsed from registration, any third party may file a non-use cancellation action. In this case, the titleholder has the burden of proof to show use of the trademark and must accredit that the trademark has been effectively used to identify the goods or services specified in its coverage.
Renewal terms:
6 months prior to renewal date.
Grace period: 6 months.
Patents
WIPO-administered Treaties:
Contracting Party of the Paris Convention: YES
Contracting Party of the Patent Cooperation
Treaty (PCT): YES. Due term for entry into national phase: 31 months.
Patent Law in force:
Decision 486 – Andean Community (Cartagena Agreement Dec 1, 2000)
Formal filing requirements:
- Power of Attorney merely signed (no legalization required) within 60 days from office action.
- Assignment document from the inventors merely signed (no legalization required) within 60 days from office action.
- Certified copy of priority application within 16 months from priority date (not required for entry into national phase of PCT applications (not required for entry into national phase of PCT applications provided that PCT/IB304 form is available).
- Sequence listings must be filed in WIPO Standard ST.26 format.
Filing of the patent application in a foreign language:
NOT available.
Substantive examination must be requested by the applicant:
YES, within 6 months publication.
Search report must be requested by the applicant:
NO
Observations by third parties:
YES, within 60 working days from publication (extension possible)
Opposition:
YES, within 60 working days from publication (extension possible)
Average time from filing to grant:
2 – 3 years
Term of protection for patents:
PCT: 20 years from the PCT international filing date.
Paris Convention: 20 years from the filing date in Colombia.
Term of protection for utility models:
PCT: 10 years from the PCT international filing date.
Paris Convention: 10 years from the filing date in Colombia.
Maintenance:
Yearly after grant.
Compulsory licensing:
YES
Designs
WIPO-administered Treaties:
Contracting Party of the Hague System: NO.
Applicable Law:
Decision 486 of the Andean Commision Community.
Grace period for filing applications, from disclosure:
NO.
Multiple design applications -one application for different embodiments-available:
NO.
Formal filing requirements:
Graphic or photographic representation of the design, perspective view and upper view, lower, sides, front and rear part. Dotted lines are NOT permitted.
Assignment document in case the design is filed by a company or a person different from the designer.
Priority document, when applicable.
Locarno classification:
YES.
Deferred publication:
NO.
Registration Proceeding Outline:
Filing. Formal examination. Publication. Opposition. Office examination (excluding novelty, unless an opposition was filed). Decision.
Opposition:
YES, within 30 days from the publication date. After the granting of the application, nullity can be requested.
Average time from filing to grant:
Approximately 7 months, when no oppositions are filed. Around 1 year and a half, in case an opposition was filed.
Term of Protection and Maintenance:
10 years from the filing date.
Customs
Does it accept an administrative request for surveillance?
YES
Intellectual property rights protected through an administrative request for surveillance
Trademarks
Copyrights
Requirement to file for an application of an administrative request for surveillance
List and Registration of Intellectual Property Rights
Certificate of Registration
PoA
Mercantile Registration or Certificate of incorporation of the owner
Procedure (special aspects)
Although there is an Administrative surveillance procedure, once a counterfeit product is found, there is no simplified administrative procedure for the destruction of the goods. The holder of an intellectual property right related to goods being imported or exported may request the Sectional Customs Directorate for the provisional suspension of the import or export operation, while the competent judicial authority resolves the mandatory complaint or lawsuit that the holder must file for the alleged condition of piracy or false trademark. In case this condition is established, the release or authorization of shipment of the goods, as the case may be, shall not proceed.
Data protection
Territory: Colombia
Data Protection Regulations:
- Article 15 of the Political Constitution of Colombia
- Law 1266 of 31 December 2008
- Law 1581 of 17 October 2012
Regulatory purpose: Article 15 of the Colombian Constitution: “All persons have the right to their personal and family privacy and to their good name, and the State must respect them and ensure that they are respected.
Likewise, they have the right to know, update and rectify the information that has been collected about them in data banks and in the files of public and private entities”.
Law 1266 of 2008: general provisions on Habeas Data and regulates the handling of information contained in personal databases, especially financial, credit, commercial, service and third country information, and other provisions. (Habeas Data)
Law 1581 of 2012: general provisions for the protection of personal data.
Parties:
- Data controller: Yes. Natural or legal person, public or private, who alone or in association with others, decides on the database and the Processing of the data.
- Data Processor: Yes. Natural or legal person, public or private, who by himself or in association with others, carries out the Processing of personal data on behalf of the Controller.
- Data Protection Officer: Yes.
- Supervisory Authority: Yes. Delegation for the Protection of Personal Data of the Superintendency of Industry and Trade.
Principles:
- Principle of legality in data processing
- Principle of purpose
- Principle of freedom
- Principle of truth or quality
- Principle of transparency
- Principle of access and restricted transit
- Principle of security
- Principle of confidentiality
Obligations:
- Register of Processing Activities: No.
- Impact Assessments: No.
- Risk analysis: No.
- Technical and organisational security measures: No.
- Duty to inform: Yes.
- Data Protection Officer: No.
Data subjects’ rights:
- Right of Access: Yes.
- Right of rectification: Yes.
- Right of Suppression: Yes.
- Right to limitation: Yes.
- Right to portability: No.
- Right to object: No.
- Automated individual decisions, including profiling: No.
International transfers:
Prohibited, with exceptions. Article 26 of Law 1581 of 2012 prohibits, as a general rule, the international transfer of personal data of any kind, to countries that do not guarantee an adequate level of protection for such data, with the exceptions established in that article.
The law empowered the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce to pronounce on international data transfers, by means of the Declaration of Conformity. The Superintendent is empowered to request information and carry out the necessary steps to establish compliance with the requirements for the viability of the operation.
Sanctioning regime:
- Fines of a personal and institutional nature up to the equivalent of two thousand (2,000) legal monthly minimum wages in force at the time the sanction is imposed. Fines may be successive as long as the non-compliance that gave rise to them persists;
- Suspension of activities related to the Treatment for up to six (6) months. The act of suspension shall indicate the corrective measures to be adopted;
- Temporary closure of the operations related to the Processing once the term of suspension has elapsed without the corrective measures ordered by the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce having been adopted;
- Immediate and definitive closure of the operation involving the Processing of sensitive data.
Certification or accreditation of compliance for companies: Yes.
Regulatory
Products that can be registered:
Food, cosmetics, hygienics, liquors, medicines.
Authority to which registration must be applied for:
Medicines and Food Surveillance National Institute (INVIMA)
Legal person who can apply for product registration:
A lawyer.
Do you require company registration in the country?
NO
Is a Certificate of Free Sale (CLV) required?
YES
