This is a list of International conventions and treaties, laws and regulations in effect pertaining to trademark registration in Costa Rica as of 2021. It is outside of the scope of this article to discuss circulars or administrative resolutions pertaining to trademark prosecution, which alters (and sometimes changes) the scope of a particular provision.
Spanish is the official version of the respective legal texts. No official translation into any other language is provided.
Treaties and International Conventions
Under the Constitution of the Republic of Costa Rica, treaties and conventions have a hierarchy above regular law. However, in practice, often laws are not amended to implement the compromises undertaken by the country in the new treaty or convention or take steps to eliminate any discrepancies with internal legislation. In these cases, the administrative authorities often revert to applying the law, despite the contradiction. In such scenario, a party may be forced to seek judicial assistance to enforce the treaty or convention.
- Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (as of June 10, 1981)
- The Uruguay Round (GATT, later succeeded by WTO) (as of November 2, 1989)
- WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) (as of January 1, 1995)
- Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property(as of October 31, 1995)
- WIPO Joint Recommendation Concerning Provisions on the Protection of Well-Known Marks (as of March 28, 2008)
- Trademark Law Treaty (as of October 17, 2008)
- Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin (as of July 30, 1997)
- The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille) (as of December 14, 2011)
Costa Rica is also a party to multilateral trade agreements, which define standards for protection of IP beyond other instruments (“TRIP Plus” provision). The two most notable ones are:
- Costa Rica-México Free Trade Treaty (since 1994)
- Dominican Republic – Central America – United States of America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) (since November 21, 2007)
The Costa Rica-México Treaty is of particular interest. It contains provisions that may prove especially useful to trademark owners in case of litigation. For instance, the Treaty allows a party that first registered an identical or similar mark, for the identical or similar goods or services, in each of the respective countries to request annulment of the subsequent registration in the other country. In light of the most favored nation treatment principle governing international trade, this provision could have abroad-reaching effect in case of trademark squatting or bad-faith registration of trademarks.
Laws and Regulations
The laws and other legislation included in this section are the mayor and most relevant laws implemented by Costa Rica for the protection of trademarks, trade names and other distinctive signs. There are numerous other laws that include specific provisions that are relevant for certain industries (for instance, laws pertaining to the use of trademark for banks, insurance companies and financial institutions, or for identifying products or sanitary or regulatory interest):
- Trademarks and Other Distinctive Signs Law (No. 7978 of January 6, 2000)
- Regulations to the Trademarks and Other Distinctive Signs Law (Executive Decree No. 30233-J of February 20, 2002)
- Observance Procedures of Intellectual Property Rights Law (No. 8033 of October 12, 2001)
- Administrative Rules on Prosecution of Appeals before the Administrative Registration Court (of November 28, 2016)
- Regulations to the Trademarks and Other Distinctive Signs Law Concerning Geographical Indications and Designations of Origin (Executive Decree No. 33743-J of March 14, 2007)
- Administrative Rules on the Service of the Administrative Registration Court (Executive Decree No. 35456-J of March 30, 2009)
- Administrative Rule DPI-0003-2019 on Recognition of Fame or Notoriety (of June 28, 2019)
- Regulations to the Uniform Central American Customs Code (Recauca) (Executive Decree No. 42876 of January 28, 2021)
The following authorities also maintain their own databases of laws and regulations:
- Trademark Office: Industrial Property Registry (Registro de la Propiedad Industrial) – Website: rnpdigital.com
- Trademark Appeal Board: Tribunal Registral Administrativo – Website: tra.go.cr
