Argentina: Applicants Required to Pay Fee to Continue Trademark Opposition Proceedings

By Estudio Chaloupka

To optimize its resources and reduce administrative burdens in opposition proceedings, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) of Argentina has mandated a new fee for trademark applicants. The established payment is approximately USD 10.

Under the current regulation, if an applicant receives an opposition to their trademark, the INPI will notify them of a three-month period to attempt to negotiate the removal of the opposition. After three months from the notification of the opposition, if the applicant has not resolved the opposition, the Trademark Office will prompt the opposer/s to rafity the opposition/s filed. If the opposition is maintained and ratified, then the applicant is required to pay a new fee to show its interest in prosecuting further the application within the legal term of 15 days, wherein said applicant may further submit a formal response to the opposition and provide evidence.

The new regulation introduced a fee that applicants must pay once per trademark application, regardless of the number of oppositions their application might have received. Failure to pay this fee will be considered by INPI as a lack of interest from the applicant in continuing with their trademark application, leading to the application's dismissal without further processing.

The INPI established the fee to prevent excessive resource expenditure. "Experience has shown that a significant number of applicants choose not to address the opposition resolution process, which demonstrates a complete loss of interest in their registration application but nevertheless imposes a significant procedural burden on both the INPI and the opponent until the process is concluded," states the resolution, issued on July 10, 2024. "INPI's human resources are limited, thus they must be concentrated on resolving oppositions actively maintained by opponents and in which applicants have shown a clear interest in resolution," it adds.

The resolution also includes a transitional clause to address applications with pending oppositions that are already in process, urging applicants to pay the fee or face rejection of their application.