Richard Nicholas Brown (De Sola Pate & Brown, Caracas, Venezuela) has written to IP Tango with some fresh news from Venezuela. Says Richard:
"One of the problems with the Venezuelan trade mark system has been the fact that clients have had to wait for five or more years for a Registration Certificates after the application is granted and they have paid the registration fees. The reason has been that the 1955 IP Law requires in its Article 86 that the Registrar sign the registration certificate.
The newly appointed Registrar has published a notice in the Official Bulletin No. 515 of October 1, 2010 that henceforth all Certificates will be issued electronically on the Registry web page www.sapi.gob.ve. This is helpful but is of course illegal. Due to the highly formal nature of Venezuelan law it is suggested that the owners of Venezuelan trade marks request their local agents to take the electronic certificates to the Registrar for signature as is required by Article 86 of the law which reads “The certificate shall be issued in the models prescribed by the Industrial Property Registry Office; it shall be signed by the Registrar and it shall published in the bulletin of the office”".
