Trademark Attorneys and Trademark Registration in the Dominican Republic. Registering the Dominican Republic has never been easier.
We are lawyers specialized in the registration and protection of trademarks in the Dominican Republic, our services are offered in a professional and personalized way, as a result we guarantee the best advice to obtain successful results in the registration process before the National Office of Industrial Property (ONAPI).
A brand under Dominican law is by definition any visible sign capable of distinguishing the products or services of a company, from the products or services of other companies. The brand is any sign that possessing sufficient distinctive capacity allows entrepreneurs to differentiate their products and services from similar ones in the market and to the consumer public to identify the products and services of their preference. The right to exclusive use of a trademark in the Dominican Republic is acquired through registration.
From the foregoing, the importance of registering and protecting trademarks is deduced as they constitute an effective means to differentiate products and services from competitors and constitute the most effective way to protect the trademark against copies or uses not authorized by the owner.
The marks may consist, among others, in words, fancy denominations, names, pseudonyms, commercial slogans, letters, numbers, monograms, figures, portraits, labels, shields, prints, vignettes, borders, lines and bands, combinations and arrangements of three-dimensional colors and shapes. They may also consist of the form, presentation or conditioning of the products or their packaging or wrappings, or of the means or premises of sale of the corresponding products or services.
The brand is one of the most important assets of a company, so we always advise our clients and related parties that when starting a venture or project it is essential to protect the brands through registration, not only to protect the investment itself but also to prevent third parties they can prevent, by registering identical or similar brands, market access for the product or service resulting from the venture.
Law 20-00, Industrial Property Law in the Dominican Republic grants trademark protection for a period of 10 years, and may be renewed for equal periods indefinitely. However, it is appropriate to point out that effectively protecting a brand goes beyond its simple registration, effective vigilance and care is required to prevent third parties from registering identical or similar brands that generate confusion or risk of association in consumers, hence the importance to have experts who monitor and properly care for their portfolio of brands against third-party requests that attempt to generate confusion and association to divert goodwill and take advantage of the prestige resulting from the work of others.