INTA Co-Hosts Roundtable as Chile Advances on Madrid System

Zoom event screen grab As Chile approaches possible implementation of the Madrid System, INTA, together with local member firm Alessandri Abogados (Chile), hosted a virtual roundtable on January 12, to discuss challenges and opportunities that the Madrid System would bring to trademark owners in the country.

The bill to implement this treaty entered the Chilean Congress’s first constitutional process on December 2, 2020. The Chamber of Deputies approved the bill on January 14, 2021. The next step is the second constitutional procedure in the Senate, the timing of which is not yet known.

Composing the panel were Etienne Sanz de Acedo, INTA’s CEO; Jose Luis Londoño, INTA’s Chief Representative Officer, Latin America and the Caribbean; Loreto Bresky, National Director of Chile’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI); and Juan Alejandro Rodríguez, Senior Legal Counsel at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Rodrigo Velasco A. (Alessandri Abogados) moderated the panel.

The panelists agreed that time and cost are advantages of the Madrid System since it is a mechanism for unifying and simplifying procedures and allows centralized management of a global portfolio of trademarks.

Mr. Sanz de Acedo highlighted that Chile is entering the System at the right time and would join Brazil and Mexico—two of the largest economies in the region—which are already members.

Ms. Bresky emphasized that the Madrid System, which is managed by WIPO, facilitates the internalization of national trademarks and the entry of foreign trademarks, promoting the arrival of international products and services and with it, foreign investment.

According to Mr. Rodriguez, lawyers will need to advise their clients on when it is best to use the Madrid Protocol.

INTA and INAPI agreed that the System will only be successful in Chile if its use is incentivized. They believe implementation must come together through a series of measures that better protect trademark owners and help IP professionals handle the initial impact that the change will have on domestic trademark filings.

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