Panama – Latam Guideline
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- Panama – Latam Guideline
Trademarks
Patents
Designs
Customs
Data protection
Trademarks
WIPO-administered Treaties:
Contracting Party of the Paris Convention: YES.
Contracting Party of the Madrid System: NO.
Trade Mark Law in force:
Law 35 dated 10 May 1996, modified by Law 61 dated 5 October 2012.
Classification:
Nice classification, 10th edition.
Multiclass Applications:
YES.
Registrable trade marks:
Distinctive and graphically representable signs, such as words, names, acronyms, letters, numbers, devices, emblems, holograms, colours, combinations or shades of colours, three-dimensionalforms, the three-dimensional form of a good or its packaging and any combination of the mentioned signs as well as sound, smell and taste marks.
Formal filing requirements:
- Power of Attorney merely signed (no legalization and no notarization required) within 2 months from application date. If POA is not filed along with the application, it will be necessary to post a bond to obtain a period of two months for filing the POA.
- Certified copy of the priority application and its translation into Spanish within 6 months from the application date.
Examination:
Absolute grounds for refusal: YES.
Relative grounds for refusal: YES.
Opposition period:
2 months counting from the publication.
Average time from filing to grant:
Approximately 12 months, unless any obstacles were raised.
Term of protection:
10 years from the application date.
Use requirements:
YES. Cancellation can be requested if the trade mark has not been used for 5 years, counting from the registration date. Partial cancellation is possible.
Renewal terms:
1 year 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: 30 months.
Patent Law in force:
IP Law No. 35 of May 10, 1996 modified by Law N°61 of October 5, 2012 and regulation of July 4, 2017
Types of protection available:
Patent of Invention; Utility Model.
First filing requirements with the local Patent Office for inventions made by nationals:
YES
Formal filing requirements:
- Power of Attorney duly notarized and legalized within 60 days from filing. Possible extension of term. Original copies preferred.
- Assignment document from the inventors duly notarized and legalized within 60 days from filing. Not required if applicant is the same in national phases.
- Certified copy of priority application within 180 days from filing (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:
Accepted. Belated filing of the Spanish translation is possible within a 60 days term after notification. Unextendable.
Substantive examination must be requested by the applicant:
Substantive examination has to be requested within 2 months from notification.
Search report must be requested by the applicant:
YES, within 120 days as from filing (PCT applications) or 14 months as from priority date (Convention applications). The application will be granted if the modifications of the claims overcome the objections of the examiner.
Observations by third parties:
YES, within 2 months from publication.
Opposition:
No
Average time from filing to grant:
5 years.
Term of protection for patents:
20 years from filing date.
Term of protection for utility models:
10 years from filing date.
Differences between utility model and patent:
- Suitable for utensils, instruments, tools, apparatus, devices, or any parts or improvements thereof, but not to chemical products, methods or uses;
- Lower threshold for inventive step.
Maintenance:
Payment for periods of 5 years also during prosecution of the application.
Marking of the product with the application/ patent number:
NOT mandatory.
Compulsory licensing:
Only in case of force majeure .
Designs
WIPO-administered Treaties:
Contracting Party of The Hague System: NO.
Applicable Law:
Industrial Property Law 35, amended by Law 61.
Grace period for filing applications, from disclosure:
3 years, provided that disclosure is made in Panama. (Local novelty)
Multiple design applications -one application for different embodiments-available:
YES, although the Law in Panama does not foresee multiple applications, in practice, multiple applications are filed. However, the examiner may request division of the application.
Formal filing requirements:
Power of Attorney, notarized and legalized by Apostille or before Panamanian Consul. 60 days from filing.
Assignment document, executed and signed by all the parties (applicant and inventors), attested by a Notary Public, and duly legalized by means of the Apostille or before the Panamanian Consulate. 60 days from filing.
Full details of applicant/ designer
Description of the design and drawings.
Claims (brief description of the design) . 3 sets of drawings.
Certified copy of the priority document, when applicable. 90 days from filing.
Locarno classification:
YES.
Deferred publication:
NO.
Registration Proceeding Outline:
FIling. Formal and substantive examination. Publication. Oppositions. Decision.
Opposition:
YES. Any interested party can file opposition within 2 months from the publication date. Cancellation actions can also be filed, within 5 years from granting, except in case of bad faith.
Average time from filing to grant:
8-18 months.
Term of Protection and Maintenance:
10 years, renewable once for a further 5-year period.
Customs
Does it accept an administrative request for surveillance?
YES
Intellectual property rights protected through an administrative request for surveillance
Trademarks
Requirement to file for an application of an administrative request for surveillance
List and Registration of Trademarks
Certificate of Registrationc
PoA
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. A criminal complaint must be filed, after having submitted proof of ownership of the trademark in question.
Data protection
Territory: Republic of Panama
Data Protection Regulations: Law 81 of 26 March 2019 (entered into force on 29 March 2021)
Regulatory purpose: Establishing the objects, principles and rules governing the protection of personal data.
Parties:
- Data controller: A data controller is any natural or legal person who decides on the processing of personal data and determines its purposes, means and scope; and the custodian of the database (who acts in the name and on behalf of the data controller and is responsible for the custody and conservation of the database).
- Data Processor: No.
- Data Protection Officer: No.
Supervisory Authority: National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information (ANTAI)
- Other: Personal Data Protection Board (advisory body)
Principles: There are nine (9) principles, namely: Fairness, purpose, proportionality, truthfulness and accuracy, security, transparency, confidentiality, lawfulness, portability.
Obligations:
- Register of Processing Activities: Yes.
- Impact Assessments: Yes.
- Risk analysis: Yes.
- Technical and organisational security measures: Yes.
- Duty to inform: Yes.
- Data Protection Officer: No.
- Other obligations:
Not to transfer or communicate personal data after seven years have elapsed since the legal obligation to keep it has expired, unless the owner of the data expressly requests otherwise.
The person responsible for the processing of personal data must compensate the financial and/or moral damage caused by the improper processing of such data.
Data subjects’ rights:
- Right of Access: Yes.
- Right of rectification: Yes.
- Right of Suppression: Yes.
- Right to limitation: No.
- Right to portability: Yes.
- Right to object: Yes.
- Automated individual decisions, including profiling: No.
- Other rights: The right to judicial defence is recognised, as well as the right to claim the protection of their ARCO rights (access, rectification, cancellation, opposition and portability) before the National Authority for Transparency and Access to Information (ANTAI), except in the cases of subjects regulated by special laws.
International transfers: No.
Sanctioning regime:
The Authority may set penalties from $1,000.00 to $10,000.00 balboas. Infringements are classified as minor, serious and very serious:
- Minor: failure to submit or inform the authority of the information within the deadline and may lead to a summons from the authority.
- Serious: processing without the consent of the owner, infringing the established principles and guarantees, infringing the confidentiality commitment, restricting ARCO rights, failing to inform the owner of the data processing, storing or archiving data without security conditions, failing to comply with the repeated requests and obligations of the authority, which may lead to a fine of US$1,000 to $10,000 balboas, depending on proportionality.
- Very serious: collecting personal data in a fraudulent manner, not observing the regulations, not suspending the processing when previously requested by the authority, storing or transferring personal data internationally and repeating serious offences, which may lead to the closure of the database records and the corresponding fine, and even the suspension and disqualification of the storage and/or processing activity.
Certification or accreditation of compliance for companies: No.
Other highlights:
The law establishes time limits for the prescription of the action and of the sanction:
Prescription of the action:
- Minor infringements within 1 year.
- Serious infringements within 3 years.
- Very serious infringements within 5 years.
Limitation period for penalties:
- Minor penalties within 3 years.
- Serious infringements within 5 years.
- Very serious infringements are not time-barred.
Other related legislation: N/A
