This was stated by the lawyer specializing in copyright, industrial property and new technologies, Sebastián Puentes, with reference to the so-called exclusive protection of patents and trademarks in Huila.
Diary of Huila, economy
Gloria Camargo
More and more in Huila; large, medium and small businessmen, in addition to day-to-day entrepreneurs, are carrying out their projects to patent their ideas and register their brands, in order to obtain exclusivity for their own.
This was announced in an interview for Diario del Huila by Sebastián Puentes, a lawyer specializing in copyright, industrial property and new technologies, an activity that can be summarized in intellectual property and trademarks.
According to the professional, intellectual property covers different sectors, which is why many people are losing their fear of the procedures involved in order to successfully carry out said processes before the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce.
It should be remembered that in Colombia, according to national regulations, “the patent is a privilege granted by the State to the inventor in recognition of the investment and efforts made by him to achieve a technical solution that brings benefits to the community. Said privilege consists of the right to exclusively exploit the invention for a certain time”, establishes the Super.
What are intellectual property and patents?
Intellectual property covers different sectors or items, namely, but patents are part of intellectual property, where this is the genre of law and from there the intellectual itself comes some species that can be seen within copyright and the copyright itself. industrial, has some “little children” that are patents. That is where we could see the theme distributed from a structural way.
How is this process progressing in the department?
Lately, the issue of intellectual property has become a main factor in the business and entrepreneurial ecosystem of the department, because it has already been understood that the way to protect what you have, the way to be unique, to be exclusive, is through this class of rights. So we see that there are already many companies: large, small and medium-sized, and even entrepreneurs, that are carrying out these procedures before the different phases or entities that may have that possibility and of course with my advice at times in which it is required.
How is this process?
The processes are varied because it depends on the species, since there is a class of processes. In the case of patents and trademarks, they are two different processes, brought before the same entity that is the Super. So the patent process has phases that are similar to the trademark process to a certain point and it is when it begins to analyze that the documentation provided is correct, an advertisement is made of what is being processed so that third parties who have or If they feel interested, they can oppose or put their points of view, because the purpose of industrial property is to make known what is available to correct or subsidize some needs that are in the sector. Subsequently, there are substantive or patentability exams and in trademark matters it is called a registrability exam.
Why is it important as an entrepreneur, businessman and researcher to have my trademark or patent registered?
The importance is in exclusivity. I always speak of that word, it is very important in terms of intellectual issues, because if someone has exclusivity in his brand, it may precisely have greater recognition. The same thing arises in patents, because if I have exclusivity in a product that is patented, that I only created it, then I will be able to have that recognition but at the same time I will be able to have higher income, because I will be the only one that markets it, which ultimately is what the patent grants: a monopoly of economic exploitation.
Is it very expensive to make these records?
The rates are very well established by the Superintendence but it is certainly not an expensive process. Filing for a patent costs $98,000, a very cheap matter, but six months after publication, the patentability exam must be paid for an average value of $1,516,000, then there is an annual payment to maintain the validity. The utility model patent application fee is equivalent to $87,000 and the utility model patent examination application fee is $857,000. For trademarks, a single payment is made from the beginning of the registration, which for this year is around $1,116,500, but if the trademark is granted every 10 years, the renewal must be made for $608,500.
In how many processes of this type have you participated?
I have had the fortune to work on several of them: 23 have been accompanied and registered trademarks. As for the patents, I have accompanied and have conceived 23. These projects have been promoted at the Universidad Surcolombiana, La Corhuila and the Chamber of Commerce.
Why, in many cases, people do not advance these processes?
Fear often occurs because of their value, but we are already clear that they are not expensive, but perhaps the issue lies in being able to get very good advice, because many people carry out all the processes individually or on their own, and there are a number of of characteristics, of conditions that must be met by the processes that are very specific and are given to people who have the knowledge and expertise. The advisers fulfill an important role, where we seek by all possible means to achieve the objective, we cannot say that we are infallible but our knowledge is focused on being able to find precisely that effective resolution or that is beneficial for the people we advise.