20
Feb

As you may already know, a product’s brand is vital in creating product awareness and brand recognition.

The registration of trademarks in the Dominican Republic is governed by Law 20-00 on Industrial Property and its Application Regulations.

The institution responsible for overseeing the intellectual property of a brand, product or service in the Dominican Republic, is the National Intellectual Property Office (known in Spanish as ONAPI).

Before establishing the steps to follow in order to register a trademark, it is important to note that these steps will be contingent on the type of brand that is needed. Once all the requirements established by ONAPI have been met, the registration certificate is approved, which is valid for ten (10) years.

Step 1:

If the trademark to be registered is a Wordmark (which is the type that consists of one or more words or a combination of letters and numbers), you will need:

A letter addressed to ONAPI, including the following information

• Full name of the applicant and agent.

• Permanent address.

• Phone number and email address.

• Brand Name.

• List of the products or services that you wish to protect with the requested trademark, and specification of the international classes to which they belong under the Nice Classification (which is an international classification of products and services applied for the registration of trademarks).

• Copy of identity card (known in Spanish as Cédula) for nationals, passport for foreign nationals or the Taxpayer Registration Number (known in Spanish as RNC) if it is a company.

• If necessary, a power of attorney must also be attached.

The response time is approximately 15 working days.

If the trademark to be registered is FIGURATIVE (containing only images, drawings, etc.), COMBINED (containing a word and graphic component), or THREE-DIMENSIONAL (when the products or packages have a characteristic appearance), you would need to proceed as follows:

Draft a letter or form addressed to ONAPI with the following information:

• Full name of the applicant and agent.

• Permanent address.

• Phone number and email address.

• Designation of the figurative, combined or three-dimensional mark.

• List of the items or services that you want to protect with the requested brand and the international classes to which they belong.

• A brief description of the design.

• Copy of identity card (known in Spanish as Cédula) for nationals, passport for foreign nationals or the Taxpayer Registration Number (known in Spanish as RNC) if it is a company.

• If necessary, a power of attorney must also be attached.

• Five reproductions of the design, no larger than 15 cm x 15 cm, which should be colored if applicable.

There are also COLLECTIVE MARKS (the ones that have signs that distinguish the material, the manufacture method or other characteristics of the products) and CERTIFICATION MARKS (products that meet defined requirements, without having to belong to any entity). For these types of marks, you would need to include additional documentation, in addition to complying with the common requirements of other applications (we will discuss these further on a different article).

Step 2:

These documents would need to be submitted, along with the application required by the National Office of Industrial Property (ONAPI). Subsequently, said office reviews the documentation and verifies whether there are errors of substance or in the forms submitted.

In the event that ONAPI finds any mistakes or violations, the applicant or his representative will be notified.

There is a period of sixty (60) days established by law to “withdraw, modify or limit” the request or respond to any objections made by ONAPI. In the event that there is no response by the applicant or his representative within the established time, or if his response does not address the objection, the application will be denied by ONAPI.

Step 3:

Refers to the publication, which makes the requested trademark opposable to third parties, due to the fact that third parties are given forty-five (45) days to file oppositions against registration applications. Once this period has expired, ONAPI will make a decision on the opposition presented (if applicable).

Finally, if all these steps were followed correctly, ONAPI approves the request. At this point, the applicant will be receiving a certificate of the requested brand.