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First Color Trademark Register in Colombia

It has been evidenced over the past few years, an effort made by the Colombian PTO in search for further development and constant updating regarding trademark protection in the country; in this regard, it is worth mentioning one of the most recent cases that as it was expected, has raised perennial discussions among experts, but that however, proves once again that Colombia is at a stage of renovation and modernization to the significance identification and recognition of distinctive signs in the market.

We are referring to the case by means of which the Colombian PTO, based on the literal e) of article 134 of the Decision 486 of 2000, which states “a color delimited by a form, or a combination of colors” can be registered as a trademark, granted registration to the trademark filed by Société des produits Nestlé S.A., consistent of the GREEN COLOR (PANTONE 361C) to distinguish products of the Nice International class 30 and related to the well known trademark MILO.

Despite the oppositions filed against the register application by the society Colombina S.A. which claimed the lack of distinctiveness of the alleged sign, as well as the company Comercializadora Liu Fenping P. E. U. which argued similarity and likelihood of confusion with the visual representation of their trademarks GOSLIM TEA, the PTO’s decision was to grant registration of the GREEN COLOR (PANTONE 361C) on behalf of Société des produits Nestlé S.A.

The arguments and conclusions stated, were based on the study filed before by the society Société des produits Nestlé S.A., titled “MILO COLOR PROYECT REPORT “, by means of which the results of a survey, conducted in the major cities of the country, were presented, evidencing that 90% of the respondents associated trademark MILO with the green color.

Currently, and while waiting for the PTO to decide the appeal filed against this decision, we can conclude that regardless of the final decision, it is very important that for the first time in Colombia a COLOR trademark has been seriously considered for registration, and a very important precedent, for other companies which surely start trying the register its color trademarks.

Carmen Sánchez-Puelles