Vallenato and Raicilla, take me south

Kat friend Fredy Sánchez Merino provides his most recent round-up of IP matters in Latin America.

Colombia- Colombian singers Shakira and Carlos Vives have prevailed (here) in an action brought against them before the Commercial Court No. 12 of Madrid by the Cuban singer Livam for alleged plagiarism of his song-- “Yo te quiero tanto”. The Court stated that –

[t]here is a four-word overlap in lyrics of the music, but as for substantial copying of the melody, either qualitatively and quantitatively, there is no overlap; the tempo of the rhythm and the harmony are also different. In summary, there is no plagiarism as claimed by the plaintiff in this lawsuit.

Colombia- The Colombian Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC) granted 73 patents in May 2019, breaking the previous record for the number of national patents granted in a single month. The SIC stated on its website that --

[t]he growth in the number of patents granted to Colombians, is in part due to the programs made available by the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce aimed at promoting innovation through the support and encouragement of inventors, innovators and researchers.

These results are also partly due to the investment of public resources through public calls to potential inventors, such as Colciencias 793 (and others), which have facilitated patent filing activity by subsidizing up to 90% of the total filing costs.

Brazil- Once again, Crocs has obtained a favorable ruling in Latin America. The commercial success of these products in Latin America has attracted copycats (pun intended), which seek to reap where they have not sowed (the Kat already covered a similar action, in Colombia here). This time, Rio de Janeiro’s Second Instance Court decided against the trading shoes under the trademark “Coqui”, here, ruling that it is confusingly similar to “Crocs”. The trademark was applied for in 2010 by BLUE FLASH - COMÉRCIO DE IMPORTAÇÃO E EXPORTAÇÃO LTDA (here), but was denied in June 2015 under art. 124.XIX of the Lei 9.279/1996.

Ecuador- The National Service of Intellectual Rights (SENADI) has officially stated through its Twitter account (here) that it has blocked five websites due to copyright infringement. The websites, belong to ROJA DIRECTA LaLiga, which owns the communication to the public right in Spanish football matches.The action follows a decision from the Provincial Court of La Coruña (here) from December 28, 2018, which ordered the closing of the website “Rojadirecta” in all its domains. Following that, similar actions have been being taken in other countries, including Perú (here).

Paraguay- Paraguay has officially designated its country brand. The denomination “Paraguay es Y” , designed by Alejandro Rebull, was selected amongst 363 proposals. The trademark will be used by all public institutions; it makes reference to the letter “y” in capital letter form (which means, "water", a prime national resource, in the Guaraní language).

Mexico- Following a previous post from the Kat (here), the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) granted, on June 28, 2019, a denomination of origin for Raicilla, making it the 17th Mexican DO. The DO will be used by more than 80 producers taking part in the Mexican Promotion Council of the Raicilla.

Photo by José Manuel Suárez and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.