Argentina: Modification to the administrative proceeding for the resolution of oppositions

The regulation establishes that applicants of trademarks interested in having the Trademark Office decide on pending oppositions must pay an official fee for each application within the deadline to file a response to the opposition. Failure to pay this official fee will result in the rejection of the application. The official fee has been set in ARS 8,900 (USD 9 at the current exchange rate).

The regulation also includes a temporary provision whereby the Trademark Office will request applicants who have not filed a response to pending oppositions to proceed with the payment of the official fee within 15 working days. The purpose of this temporary provision is to reduce the backlog of pending applications with oppositions and ease the burden on examiners, assuming that applicants who did not reply to the opposition are no longer interested in their application.

Previously, applicants with pending oppositions were not required to actively pursue an opposed application, and the Trademark Office was obliged to render a decision in all cases. This resulted in a significant backlog to decide oppositions, and with this regulation INPI seeks to tackle such backlog.