Imagine this scenario: You, with great effort and dedication create a brand or commercial name that you make grow and that identifies your product or business, but never record it at the Registro Nacional (National Register); later, when you finally initiate the process, you realize that there is a very similar brand already registered, or even worse, someone else registered your brand before you did.

When it comes to manage the Intellectual Property (patents, brands and commercial names, drawings, industrial models, advertising signs, etc.) time is crucial, so we often hear in the legal field the sentence “first in time, first in right”.

What is Intellectual Property?

The National Registry of Costa Rica is responsible for regulating the processes in Intellectual Property matters, which they describe as a concept that includes all the creations of the mind, in which intervenes the creativity, originality and personal stamp of each creator. Within the Intellectual Property we will find creations such as inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names, images, drawings and models used in commerce.

At Arturo Blanco Law we are experts in the registration and administration of different types of Intellectual Property, which includes the category of Industrial Property:

1. Trademarks: signs used by businessman of all kinds to identify and differentiate their products and/or services on the market.
2. Distinctive signs: Trade names, slogans, geographical indications and designations of origin.
3. Patents of invention: are given to products or processes in all fields of technology, as long as they are new, are inventive and can be applied industrially (National Register). 
4. Industrial designs: refers to the external appearance of a new product with an industrial application; intervene aspects such as shape, surface, design, lines, shapes or colors (National Register). 
5. Utility models: any new disposition or form obtained or introduced in tools, work instruments or known utensils, that allow a better function or a special function for its use (National Register).

Which is the correct process to register the Intellectual Property?

Arturo Blanco Law has available an integral service for the registration of Intellectual Property; as well as for renewals and transfers of commercial names or brands.

We proceed with a study of brands to ensure that there is no similar brand already registered; this analysis is called “Preliminary study of novelty” and is completed in about 2 days.

Once we are sure there is no similar brand to the one you want to enroll:

1. We go to the National Register and fill a registration form with your signature, authenticated by one of our lawyers.
2. Present, with detail, the Intellectual Property to be registered.
3. Pay the registration fees.
4. The National Registry will make its own “Study of novelty” to check the status of the brand, and after half a month or so, it will give its approval for the registration.

The importance of register your Intellectual Property before the law

In Arturo Blanco Law we have managed a wide variety of cases where we protect a brand that is being used without permission.

In one occasion a local company was selling products with the brand of one of our clients, so we had to ask for a court application to protect the brand. Our rapid legal action led to the confiscation of the goods by the Police and the protection of our client’s brand.

Don´t waste valuable time!  Contact us today: (506) 2283-2020, (506) 2283-2020 / ablanco@arturoblancolaw.com