- North & South America
2. The trademark regulations in Guatemala are mainly based on the provisions of the Central American Treaty on the Protection of Industrial Property, which came into effect in Guatemala on June 8, 1975. The agreement abolished the domestic legislation of the member states of Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Nicaragua and established a unified set of laws to protect trademarks, trade names, and advertising language in the region. But the trademark application documents submitted according to the treaty must comply with the regulations on the examination of trademark application forms in each member state.
3. The trademark registration authority in Guatemala is the Guatemalan Intellectual Property Office, and the official language is Spanish.
4. The trademark registration in Guatemala follows the principle of "use first".
5. Guatemala accepts registration applications for commodity trademarks, service trademarks, collective trademarks, trade names, and advertising language. The trademark registration in Guatemala adopts the Nice International Classification and does not accept applications for multiple categories. The elements that can be registered as trademarks include text, name, graphics, color, sound, smell, hologram, etc.
Guatemala is a signatory to international intellectual property treaties such as the Paris Convention and the WIPO Convention, and has not yet joined the Madrid Agreement or the Madrid Protocol. Therefore, trademark registration in Guatemala can only be applied for through the "single country registration" channel.
The validity period is 10 years from the date of registration; Renewal can be processed within 12 months before the expiration date, with a grace period of 6 months (with additional fees) and a validity period of 10 years.
If the trademark has not been used for 5 consecutive years, an application for revocation can be filed with the Guatemalan Civil Court.
1. Applicant's name and address
2. Goods or services
3. Trademark design
4. Power of attorney, to be notarized
5. If priority rights need to be submitted, you can apply for submission of materials within 90 days after submission
Application acceptance review announcement approval issuance.
Submit application documents to the Guatemalan Intellectual Property Office;
The examiner will conduct a formal and substantive examination of the application to confirm whether the application documents are complete and whether the applied trademark meets the basic registration requirements; If the review fails, a rejection notice will be issued and a response will be required within the specified time;
Once the review is approved, an announcement will be arranged, and the objection period will be 2 months from the announcement date;
If there are no objections or objections are not established during the announcement period, the trademark will be approved for registration and a trademark registration certificate will be issued to the applicant.
If the whole process goes smoothly, it will take about 12-18 months.
