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Court Orders Withdrawal of Aguardiente Brand in Trademark Dispute
By Vera Abogados
The Superior Court of Bogotá ordered the withdrawal of Aguardiente Antioqueño Real from the Colombian market due to its similarity to Aguardiente Amarillo de Manzanares, and required its producer, FLA, to modify its appearance to continue commercializing it.
The regulatory body also prohibited FLA from promoting and selling Aguardiente Real in the Colombian market if its presentation resembled that used by ILC, the producer of Aguardiente Amarillo de Manzanares.
"The Court concluded that FLA did not make a significant effort to differentiate its product from one already recognized in the market. The product's image, offering format, advertising, and color palette lack sufficient distinctive elements to differentiate it from ILC's Aguardiente Amarillo," stated the Court.
FLA argued that there were differences between the two products: firstly, that the bottle used is conical with a more pronounced angle of inclination; secondly, that the use of green letters on the bottle glass had already been used in Antioqueño Real; and thirdly, that the use of color in the product does not infringe on industrial property rights, as there are other brands.
However, this argument was deemed insufficient, and the Superior Court of Bogotá ruled in favor of Industria Licorera de Caldas, ordering FLA to distribute its product under a new presentation.
Vera Abogados
VERA ABOGADOS ASOCIADOS S.A.-, is a Colombian law firm with specialized lawyers, Founded more than 40 years ago, by Jorge E. Vera Vargas, Doctor in Law and Political Sciences of the La Gran Colombia University in Bogota D.C., Colombia. At present, with principal offices in the city of Bogota D.C., and offices in the cities of Cali, Medellin, Barranquilla, at national level, and at an international level in Ecuador and Panama.
The Firm is today a reference in the Andean Community, and it makes part of important international affiliations such as PRAGMA, EEIG. International Network of Law Firm, The International Trademark Association (INTA), Asociación Interamericana de Propiedad Industrial (ASIPI), Associação Brasileira da Propriedade Intelectual (ABPI), and the Chamber of Industrial Property Agents of the Republic of Argentina(CAPIRA).
VERA ABOGADOS ASOCIADOS S.A. offers professional services to prestigious Colombian and foreign companies in the following juridical areas: Industrial property, Trademarks, Patents, Copyrights, New Technologies, Disloyal Competition, Commercial Practices, Sanitary Rights, Community Right, Administrative law, Tax Law, Corporate Right and Foreign Investment and Business Rights.
The Firm offers of equal way a service of integral consultancy in Foreign Commerce, Business administration, Finance and Accountancy. The team is made up of specialized lawyers in each of the workspaces and expert multilingual professionals (Spanish, English and French) that respond with efficiency and competitiveness to the needs and demands of our customers around the world.