INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS
An industrial design right protects the ornamental and aesthetic aspect of an article. The design may consist of three dimensional appearance ( shape of the item) or of a two-dimensional appearance (lines and colors).
The law in Costa Rica requires that the industrial design complies with the requirement of “special appearance”, “novelty” and “originality” (Article 25 and Article 26) Law 6867 of Patents of Invention, Drawings, Industrial and Utility Models).
COSTA RICA has a legal system which grants protection to the industrial designs. The term of protection is of 10 years since the date of registration.
TRADEMARES professional team works with its clients and correspondents in each of the necessary formalities to obtain an industrial design in Costa Rica.
Also it provides legal consultancy specialized in exploitation and marketing of industrial designs, as well as defense of the industrial design before the Registry of the Industrial Property or administrative, civil or criminal Courts.
TRADEMARES is member of a reliable Intellectual Property legal network, comprised of colleagues that share the same quality and service standards as we offer. It allows us to legally protect your industrial design rights world-wide.
- THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN IN COSTA RICA -
REQUIREMENTS
The information and documents required by TRADEMARES to submit a Industrial Design Application are the following:
1. GENERAL INFORMATION
- Name and conditions of the applicant.
- Name and conditions of the creators.
- Title of the Industrial Design
- Precise information of the type or kinds of objects or products to which the industrial design will be applied to.
- International Classification.
- In case of claiming priority, information about the process in the country of origin: date and place and priority application number.
- Descriptive report of the Industrial Design: description, summary and drawings (up to 5 different graphic illustrations).
Please be advised that the Costa Rican Law requires that the industrial design complies with the requirement of “special appearance”, “novelty” and “originality” (art. 25 and art 26, Law 6867 of Patents and Industrial Models).
Therefore it is compulsory to file a detailed description of the drawings and a summary of the claims, emphasizing the originality, novelty or distinctive of the aesthetic features. The objective is to demonstrate that that no identical or very similar design is known to have existed before.
2. POWER OF ATTORNEY (POA)
Applicant shall grant a POA (PDF 40KB) on behalf of TRADEMARES and its attorneys.
According to the Costa Rican TM Office, Article 34 bis of the Law of Patents of Invention, Drawings and Industrial and Utility Models has deleted any consular and legalization POA formalities.
Therefore, it is enough to fill out a simple document with the grantor’s signature authenticated by a Notary. No legalization is required.
3. OTHER DOCUMENTS
PRIORITY DOCUMENT: In case of priority claim CUP a copy of the PRIORITY document issued by the Office of the country of origin shall be filed.
INVENTOR´S RIGHTS ASSIGNMENT DOCUMENT: When the applicant is not the creator, it is required to file an ASSIGNMENT DOCUMENT showing the assignment of the rights in its favor. This document shall be duly legalized by the Consulate of Costa Rica in the country of origin.
CERTIFICATE OF REGISTRATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES (optional)
In case the concession proceeds in the country of origin or in any other country, before than in Costa Rica, it is recommended to present a copy of such concession.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: all the docuemnts to be filed before the Registry of Industrial Property of Costa Rica shall be in Spanish or come with its Spanish translation.
PROCEDURE
Our law provides a detailed concession procedure in relation to industrial designs. However, registry practice has been applying, thru extensive interpretation, some patent procedure provisions additionally to the industrial design procedure. In some cases, the interpretation goes beyond what is established in the Law, specifically in relation to publication and content examination matters.
The procedure steps from filling a industrial design application until the effective granting of the industrial design right in Costa Rica shall be briefly described as follows:
- Filing an application.
- Formal examination. Review of the application to determine if it complies with all the requirements of form established by law. A term of 30 calendar days is granted to fulfill any missing or additional required information.
- Publication. Once the formal examination has been passed a publication edict is issued. This shall be published three consecutive times in La Gaceta and once in a newspaper of national circulation. As of the first publication the term of three months public opposition begins.
- Opposition. If an opposition is filed, the applicant has a month-term to answer. The opposition will be determined by a resolution .
- Substantial Examination. The Law does not establish a content examination for industrial design. However, the registry practice does establish such substantial examination.
- Granting f the Industrial Design.
- Publication of the Registry: Once the industrial design has been granted, the Law establishes its publication once in La Gaceta.
RATES
TRADEMARES´S rate policy responds to the principles of transparency and strict execution to the agreed budget.
However, in industrial design matters, it is impossible to establish pre-fixed costs. The reason is that some of the governmental rates (publication rate, substantial examination rate) are fixed according to the characteristics of each application. Also, in case of opposition on the part of a third party or an unfavorable registry report, the defense document will cost according to the dedicated time (with a minimum of US$150).
Without prejudice of the aforementioned, our schedule of fees can be found here (PDF 35KB).
We guarantee that there are no additional costs for the File´s updating reports, formalities of the publication phase, nor to secure the original industrial design right certificate.
VALIDITY / ANNUAL RATES
The validity of the industrial design is of 10 years since the date of the registry concession.
Our Law establishes the payment of annuities (annual rates) for the maintenance of industrial designs during the first 5 years of the registry.
However, this provision was object of unconstitutionality claim and currently is not being applied. So there is no payment of the annual rates to maintain the validity of the registry of an industrial design.
- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ) -
Can variations of a design be filed in a same registry application to a same industrial design or drawing?
No. Each industrial drawing or model shall have an independent application.
The registry practice has accepted filling several formats when it is the same industrial design applied to different objects (for example, drawings on a whole dinner service). However, this possibility is left to the examiner´s discretion.