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Amendments to Trademark Laws

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Feb 17, 2016 (Newsletter Issue 3/16)
Argentina
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Mediation Law for Trademark Matters Amended


On December 21, 2015, the Argentine Congress passed Law No. 27.222, which will become effective on March 22, 2016. This new law amends Section 18 of the Mediation Law No. 26.589, and sections 16 and 17 of the Trademark Law No. 22.362.

According to the Argentine trademark legislation, an opposition automatically blocks the progress of the opposed application, and the applicant is granted a one-year term (counted as of the date on which he is served notice of the oppositions filed against his mark), to negotiate withdrawal of the complaints raised against his mark. In the absence of an amicable agreement, and in order to avoid the abandonment of his mark, the applicant should seek dismissal of the complaint through a court decision, but should before exhaust mandatory mediation proceedings.

Prior to the passing of this new law, the applicant was able to suspend the one-year term and thus prevent the abandonment of his mark as of the date on which he initiated mediation proceedings against an opponent, which may well be the day before expiration of the one-year term.

In practice, this implied that completion of the mediation stage might occur well after expiration of the one-year term. As of March 22, 2016, pursuant to this new law, failure to obtain withdrawal of the complaint, or to else bring a court action against the opponent within the one-year term will result in the lapsing of the trademark application. The effect of this amended procedure is that the initiation of mediation does no longer suspend the one-year term granted to the applicant to overcome the oppositions raised against his marks.

Consequently, before expiration of the one-year term, the applicant must either inform the Trademark authorities that withdrawal of the opposition filed against his mark was obtained during negotiations with the opponent, or else complete mediation proceedings -and if necessary bring a court action against such opponent-, to obtain dismissal of the opposition through a court decision.

Source: www.marcasurmi.com: Estudio Chaloupka, Argentina