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Simplification of Requirements in Trademark Prosecution in Chile as a result of the Trademark Law treaty adaptation

Finally, after Chile subscribed to the Trademark Law treaty (TLT), the Chilean Law regarding IP matters was modified, thus bringing the domestic legislation into line with this instrument of International nature.

This adaptation involves that Chilean Law currently does not require the legalization of the Power of attorney before the Chilean Consul nor the notarization of such document by a Notary Public.

This flexibility with regard to the requirements to make valid a power granted abroad in order to act before the National Institute of Industrial Property (Chilean Office of Industrial Property) is applicable both for trademark applications as well as annotations for transferences, assignments, changes of names (proprietary), which implies that under the purview of the current Chilean Law, it shall only be requested a simple and original power of attorney.

However, the scope of the legal reform is restricted to de-formalize only the requirements of the power of attorney, therefore possibly in the future, the Chilean Office of Trademarks could request to confirm the capacity of the applicant’s legal representative (that is who signs and grants the power of attorney) in order to represent him in said act, said document is a document additional to the power of attorney which in order to be valid in Chile should be signed before Notary Public and duly legalized before Notary Public as well.

Therefore, and in order to avoid the whole legalization procedure before Chilean consulates abroad, we suggest signing the Power of Attorney before Notary Public so as said Minister of Faith certifies in the same instrument the capacity of the representative whose signature appears on said document. In this way, applicants for trademark registrations in Chile can avoid the request on the part of the Chilean Office of trademarks, during the prosecution of the trademark application, of a document additional to the power of attorney which has to be legalized before the Consulate, procedure which most of the time results to be cumbersome, very expensive and time consuming.

In conclusion, although the law acknowledges the validity of the power of attorney in order to act before the Chilean Office of trademarks for all practical purposes, it is still recommended to have the power of attorney signed before at least a Notary Public, however without the legalization before the Chilean Consulate of the corresponding country.

Carmen Sánchez-Puelles