Trademark registration Venezuela

In order to protect a trademark in this country, it is necessary to register your trademark in Venezuela. Trademark registration in this South American country is regulated by the SAPI (El Servicio Autónomo de la Propiedad Intelectual), the Venezuelan intellectual property agency. Active use of your trademark prior to registration is not necessary. Venezuela is not a member of the Madrid Protocol, which means that international extension of trademark registration within this territory is not legally valid. To realize brand protection, you can only follow the local (national) route.

If you want to apply for trademark protection in Venezuela, this can consist of a word element, a figurative element (logo) or a combination of both. In the latter case we speak of a combined trademark. If you are going to register this combined trademark in Venezuela, the protection you obtain after successfully completing the application process only applies to the exact combination of elements, as you have offered it to SAPI.

In practice this means that third parties can use the loose, unprotected elements for their own purposes. You can only object to this if this person or company offers the same products or services as you, or things that are very similar. The ground of your objection is then confusing similarity. To prevent such things, it is strongly recommended to start a separate application procedure for the individual elements that you want to use for promotional purposes.

The registration process starts by completing an application with the SAPI. Within about a month, this agency will conduct a formal investigation to determine whether all formal requirements are met. Prior to this assessment, your application will be published in the official trade gazette.

An opposition period of thirty working days starts on that publication date. Third parties then have the opportunity to lodge an objection, for example because they believe that registration of your trademark infringes their previously acquired rights. If no objections are submitted, the intellectual property office will continue with a substantive assessment, from which the decision on whether or not your trademark can be registered will follow. The decision will again be published in the trade gazette. You then have thirty days to pay the registration fee.

Providing all necessary information and conducting a trademark search prior to submitting an application increases the chance of success. Should obstacles arise in this trajectory, this concerns one of the following three situations:

• the Venezuelan Intellectual Property Office has received incomplete information and asks you to provide it in order to continue the process
• during the 30-day opposition period, a third party files an objection bezwaar
• a negative decision results from the substantive investigation by the SAPI. As an applicant, you can submit a request for reconsideration. Its success is highly situation dependent.