Region: Latin America & Caribbean

Two recent cases - one involving the French company L'Oréal, the other involving US company American Home Products Corporation - indicate that the Argentine courts are rigorously applying the provisional measures provided by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

29 January 2003

In <i>American Home Products Corporation v Laboratorios de Investigaciones Cosméticas SRL</i>, a court in Buenos Aires has ruled in favour of the defendant who opposed the registration of a trademark to cover a class of goods different from its own.

24 January 2003

In <i>Eduardo Denkberg v Coto Cicsa</i>, an appellate court has ruled that the defendant's unauthorized use of the plaintiff's trademark frustrated the plaintiff's ability to license it in the future. The court ordered the defendant to cease using the mark and to pay the plaintiff general damages for loss of opportunity.

20 January 2003

In <i>Chivilcoy Gas (Solgas) v Totalgaz Argentina SA</i>, a federal court has found Chivilcoy Gas (and its directors) guilty of infringing the trademark rights of other gas companies by refilling their trademarked containers with its own gas.

17 January 2003

The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office is receiving mixed reaction to its proposal to join the Madrid Protocol on the international registration of marks. Some businesses see the benefit of a fast and cheap registration system, while others fear inadequate research into prior rights.

13 January 2003

US company Owens Corning has won a case before the Administrative Litigation Court in which it opposed the registration of the trade name Fiberglass Industrial y Comercial Ltda based on the argument that it is the registered owner of the FIBERGLASS trademark in Ecuador.

06 December 2002

The Administrative Court of Peru has issued guidelines regarding the cancellation of trademarks based on non-use. Among other things, the trademark owner must prove that it "sufficiently used" the mark during the three years prior to the commencement of the cancellation action.

05 December 2002

In Comercial Raymarket Limitada v America Online Inc, the Court of Appeals of Santiago has affirmed the decision given by an arbitrator under the NIC Chile arbitration and dispute resolution system ordering the cancellation of the domain name 'aol.cl'.

03 December 2002

In <i>Brother v Surlorran</i> the São Paulo Court of Appeal has ruled that despite Brazil's new Trademark Law, an unregistered trademark-use agreement may preclude third parties from importing parallel products into Brazil.

29 November 2002

Parliament has approved a new law which requires that all prescriptionsfor medicine must be made using the medicine's international non-proprietary name. In addition, pharmacists must substitute trademarked medicine with a cheaper alternative. These measures may have the effect of weakening the trademarks of large pharmaceutical companies.

28 November 2002