The Republic of Costa Rica has just ratified the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances. The Treaty will enter into force in Costa Rica on 13 February 2021.
4 Latin American countries (Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Peru) are already members of the Treaty.
Colombia, Costa Rica (new), Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua have already signed it.
Last October, the Latin America IP SME HD posted on the new Dominican Republic Plant Variety Office (OREVADO).
Supported by CARIPI (a project funded by the European Union), the initiative will be implemented through the Office of Plant Variety Registration and Protection of Breeders' Rights (OREVADO) of the Ministry of Agriculture, and is intended to boost the capacity to process new varieties of plants.
The Dominican Republic National Intellectual Property Office (ONAPI) has joined EUIPO's TMclass. This platform, implemented by the EUIPO and run by the EU Commission, is a harmonized database with more than 70,000 terms from which users can benefit from.
This tool contributes to the search and classification of products and services, making it easier for users who are willing to protect their trademarks. Moreover, this tool searches and translates in 44 languages.
The Dominican Republic Intellectual property Office (ONAPI) has implemented new user services through its virtual platform.
This is the list of new online services:
- Trade mark renewals
- Multi-class Trade mark registration application
- Change of trade mark manager
- Unification of all payments under one single payment
The Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances has just entered into force on 28 April 2020.
Actors, singers, musicians and dancers are expected to get more rights out of their work thanks to this new Treaty. In words of WIPO's Director General, Francis Gurry "Many of the actors and other performers in our beloved series and movies are essentially gig workers, without long-term salaries, equity stakes or great fame. The Beijing Treaty helps give these performers more rights to their work, which in turn boosts their personal revenues."
As of January 17, 2020, Dominican Republic has become the 30th member to the Lisbon Agreement.
The Lisbon Agreement refers to the International Registration of Appellations of Origin, offering applicants the possibility of obtaining protection for an appellation of origin in contracting parties to the Lisbon Agreement through a single registration and one set of fees.
To read more, please be referred to WIPO's website.
The International Trade Mark Association (INTA) and the Inter-American Association of Intellectual Property (ASIPI) issued their second report on the economic impact of registered trade marks on the economies of 10 Latin American countries. The first report published in 2016 focused on Colombia, Chile, Panama, Peru and Mexico. For this second edition were added the following five: Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
Earlier in the year the Dominican Republic announced the launch of the Office for the Registration of Plant Varieties (OREVADO), under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture. It is therefore now possible to register and assert your rights on your plant varieties in this country.
European SMEs seeking to expand their businesses towards the Latin American region consider the Internet as a preferential channel to do so. With the Internet being such an easy entrance for new products and services, it can also be used by forgers from all over the world as an instrument to sell counterfeit goods or commit any kind of Intellectual Property (IP) frauds.
