The National Institution of Industrial Property (INPI) in Argentina, has given an excellent use to their new technology, by improving and reducing the time and work done in the trademark registration process. Currently this procedure is not taking longer than 10 months to be ready and delivered to the applicant.
The trademark system in Argentina is regulated by the legislation No. 22.362 prompt in 1980 by the National Economic Department, which states that from the first moment that a trademark is registered in the INPI, it has the right to be protected.
According to the National Economic Department, INPI is the institution that has shown a bigger development in the technology area, they have initiated a new procedure to reduce to reduce the amount of procedures that involves physical paper. This new technology has allowed this organization to work with electronic documents and also to have a digital signature.
A resolution issued by the INPI on 2012 establishes that when a person claims the priority of a Community Trademark filed at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM), they will verify the priority document online in the webpage of the OHIM. The lawyer or the person in charge needs to provide the identification code and the document will be validated without incurring in any legalization costs.
Therefore this institution is using the digital signature to legalize and approve the trademark titles, once the document is ready they send it immediately to the office in charge of Industrial Property. After the officer receives this papers she/he notifies the respective applicant. The INPI is also in charge of publishing in a digital platform if any of the applications have an opposition or an office action during the registration process.
