Colombia passes law to comply with TLT

IP Tango learns that the Colombian government has issued a new piece of legislation, Decree 19 of 10 January 2012, which seeks to remove unnecessary administrative formalities from the trade mark application process and to make proceedings more efficient.

The new decree, which implements provisions of the Trademark Law Treaty (TLT), contains, among other things, the following provisions:

• Apart from the renunciation of rights, no party may require the attestation, authentication, legalisation or other certification of any signatures in documents filed with the Trade Mark Office.
  
• It is no longer necessary for an applicant to prove its legal existence and representation.
  
• Powers of attorney no longer need be notarised -- and they can refer to one or more proceedings.
  
• Applicants can now file multi-class applications.

Official rules for implementing these provisions are currently being prepared.

Source: Margarita Castellanos (Castellanos & Co, Bogota), writing for World Trademark Review