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“Highly-renowned” status of a trademark in Brazil

Recently, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) has published guidelines changing the procedures to request the “highly-renowned” status of a trademark in Brazil.

The main requirement to apply for the declaration is that the trademark must be registered in Brazil. The main advantages of the “highly-renowned” trademark status are:

The mark is protected in all fields of activity;
The BTO is required to reject ex officio future trademarks based on the mark declared as “highly-renowned”;
The declaration is valid for 10 (ten) years and it can be renewed, as per conditions established on the Brazilian PTO’s guidelines;
A substantial increase of the value of the mark;
Increase of indemnification for damages and criminal penalties due to an undue use; and
Protection against registration of the domain names comprised of the mark declared as “highly-renowned”.
The guidelines establish that the requirement of a declaration of a “highly-renowned” trademark status may be requested anytime on a specific procedure. The owner of the trademark who is interested in applying for such a protection must submit sufficient evidence in Portuguese.

The guidelines will become effective soon in Brazil.