Chile: Industrial Property Law bill is in its second stage

In the context of a bill sent by the Executive Power few months ago (N° 7862-03), last week the Commission of Economy and Constitution of the Senate discussed the modifications included in this project – the bill is in its second stage after being already reviewed by the Chamber of Deputies.

Background – the scope of the project
Chilean Trade Mark Law Treaty (TLT) finally came into force in our country on August 5, 2011. The same day, the Executive Power sent a bill to the Chilean Congress in order to amend some articles of the Chilean Trade Mark Law.

These are some of the changes proposed in the bill:
• the simplification of the different process related to attestation, notarization, authentication, legalization or certification of any signature regarding power of attorneys and trade mark assignments;
• the possibility of dividing an application into two or more separate applications (so-called divisional applications); and,
• the feasibility of covering in one single application all the classes of the Nice International Classification of Goods and Services.

At the same time, the bill also seeks to adapt our legislation to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) that came into force in our country on June 09, 2011. It does so by incorporating definitions of international application. It also covers other issues such as: receiving office; official language; opposition’s dates; clarification of the filing date and the effects of an international application in our country; the existence of national applications; among others.

With these important steps, Chile is implementing its intellectual property commitments in accordance with the international treaties recently signed, and in view of the fast progress of this bill, sooner than later we will have a concrete modification in this regard.

Written by Andrés Grunewaldt (Silvia & Cia Abogados, Santiago de Chile, Chile) edited by Patricia