Importance of trademark registration in Brazil: keep your business safe.
The lack of information and clarification related to protection of Intellectual Property has lid entrepreneurs to invest only in advertising and promotion of their goods and services, excluding trademark registration and protection of company's identity.
The main advantages guaranteed to trademark's owner are: exclusive use of the mark to identify goods or services in all National territory (Brazil) and obtaining compensation for any losses caused by unauthorized use of the trademark by third parties.
The importance of this kind of protection has increased every year, according to information provided by Brazilian Trademark and Patent Office - INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property). The Institute released that there were 163,587 trademark applications requested in 2013, against 150,107 in 2012.
The first and most important step, for registration of a mark is an availability search, in order to verify that no identical or similar marks have been applied or registered before Brazilian PTO. After search performed, the Israeli company or individual should constitute a Brazilian Intellectual Property Agent to monitor the application during its several phases up to the acceptance of registration. It is important that the owner proves its field of activity. In average, the timeframe takes approximately 2/3 years for each application to mature into registration. In case of extraordinary situations, such as office actions, oppositions or rejection, a further delay is expected to occur (which would be 4 years).
Do not run the risk of having losses and guarantee your rights under your trademark. The Chamber of Commerce Israel Brazil offers free trademark search through e-mail address "international@vilage.com" (please, mention in the title: Partnership Chamber of Commerce Israel Brazil and send the trademark to be searched, as well as your field of activity). Additional information can be also requested via e-mail international@vilage.com.