Collective trademarks in Peru

By Francisco Espinosa Bellido

The National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) reported that to date Peru has ten collective trademarks. All of the ten collective trademarks are linked to agricultural products and have had successfull participation at international fairs. Three of the ten collective marks are Terrandina, used by cheese producers, Andean Trout and Qori Quinoa.

Hebert Tassano, president of Indecopi, said to La República that the institute has signed agreements with several organizations to assist producers by promoting the use and registration of collective trademarks in the Andean region. "The first step is identifying the product to design a logo and from there on the process is initiated with the goal of registering the product as quickly as possible for producers to have a collective trademark that allows them to save costs both on the trademark registration and on the marketing of the product", Tassano explained.

Collective marks are usually defined as signs which distinguish the geographical origin, material, mode of manufacture or other common characteristics of goods or services of different enterprises using the collective mark. The owner may be either an association of which those enterprises are members or any other entity, including a public institution or a cooperative.