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A good question: Why register your trademarks in Venezuela?

Nowadays many people could be asking why register or keep their trademarks in Venezuela in the middle of the undeniable difficulties the country is going through

It is not a secret for anybody that economic crises are cyclic and even more so when they happen in countries with immense human and natural resources. To this we must add that Venezuela counts on a market which never stops demanding quality goods and services, something which does not occur in any other country in the world under the same circumstances.

Venezuelans are among the “early adopters” of the world. When a product is barely leaving factories in large production centers, it is possible to see it almost immediately in the hands of a Venezuelan. It is for this reason that instead of asking the question in the headline of this article, trademark owners should, to the contrary, be asking: Should I allow a third party to get hold of my trademark in Venezuela? Of course, the answer to this question is: No way.

Once the present cycle is over, we can only predict that there will be an exponential increase in the presence of all kinds of products and services from the cheapest to the most sophisticated. So why wait for it to be too late and for the costs to recover a trademark from the hands of third parties to be too high instead of avoiding it with a bit of anticipation of the future.

It addition, it should be taken into account that the local legislation sets forth that the first one to apply for a trademark is entitled to it, and also that the protection time is among the longest in the world at 15 years. This on one hand is an advantage for a trademark owner, whether legitimate or not, and it is a disadvantage for the legitimate owner who allows a third party to outdo him/her.

As a final note, it is important to stress that between 2015 and 2016, the number of trademark applications was kept steady around 20,000 while in a market equivalent in size as the Peruvian one but with a large growth, the average was 26,000 applications. This is evidence that many are those who understand the strategic importance of having and keeping their trademarks protected in Venezuela.