Argentina’s trademark protection regime is governed by Law No. 22.362 (Trade Marks Act), substantially revised by Law 27.444 in 2018, administered by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI)World Inte.... Argentina adheres to the Paris Convention, TRIPS Agreement and Nice Classification system, yet Argentina is not a contracting party to the WIPO Madrid Protocol, meaning all trademark rights must be obtained via independent national filings submitted directly to INPI; international Madrid registrations cannot extend protection to Argentine territory1mark.ar. This guide focuses exclusively on registration formalities, unique post-registration maintenance obligations, non-use revocation and cross-border brand compliance risks, with zero factual overlap with prior Brazilian, South African, Egyptian and Mexican trademark articles. Four binding statutory provisions govern international brand operators:
1. Article 10 & Article 11 Mandatory Domiciled Argentine Legal Representative for Foreign Applicants: Any natural person or corporate entity without a permanent registered business address within Argentine territory must appoint a locally licensed Argentine IP attorney as exclusive procedural agent, holding a notarised and consular-authenticated power of attorney, to receive all INPI official notifications, respond to office actions, file oppositions, renew registrations and defend caducidad non-use cancellation proceedings. Unrepresented foreign filings are summarily rejected without substantive examination亿佰倍懂商....
2. Article 26 Mandatory Mid-Term Sworn Declaration of Use (Unique Argentine Statutory Obligation): Every registered trademark owner must file a sworn written declaration with INPI between the fifth and sixth anniversary of registration grant. The sworn statement must confirm genuine commercial use of the mark in Argentina covering the designated goods/services within the preceding five years. Failure to submit this mid-term declaration creates an irrebuttable legal presumption of non-use, blocking all renewal applications and exposing the mark to full or partial caducidad revocation by third partiessupport.pr....
3. Article 28 Caducidad Five-Year Non-Use Revocation Mechanism: Any interested third party may initiate administrative caducidad proceedings to fully or partially cancel a trademark registration if the mark has not been put to genuine domestic commercial use for five consecutive years post-registration. Valid use evidence includes local Argentine sales invoices, domestic product packaging, nationwide commercial advertising and physical distribution records. Pure cross-border drop-shipping, overseas manufacturing and foreign e-commerce transaction logs cannot qualify as genuine Argentine commercial useMiranda AP....
4. Article 6 Trademark Assignment Recording Statutory Requirement: Full or partial transfer of registered trademarks is only enforceable against subsequent bona fide third-party transferees or licensees once the assignment deed is formally recorded in INPI’s central trademark registry. Unrecorded transfers carry no legal priority over later conflicting trademark transactionsWorld Inte....
Registered trademarks remain valid for ten years calculated from the registration grant date, renewable indefinitely for successive ten-year cycles. A six-month post-expiry grace period is available for late renewals subject to graduated penalty surchargesIP-Coster. Argentina operates a strict single-class filing rule: separate independent applications must be filed for each Nice class of goods and services; multi-class combined filings are not permittedChambers a.... Registrable mark types include word marks, figurative composite logos, three-dimensional shapes and colour combinations; sound marks are registrable subject to graphic representation requirementsGoytia & A....
All non-Spanish legal instruments require sworn Spanish translations, and all foreign corporate documents need notarisation plus consular legalisation by Argentine embassies abroad. Vague generic descriptions of goods/services are prohibited under INPI examination standards.
1. Standard single-class trademark application mandatory materials: Completed official INPI application form in Spanish, high-resolution mark graphic specimens, itemised Nice class goods/services specifications (maximum 20 items included within base filing fee), signed notarised power of attorney appointing local Argentine IP attorney, certified corporate registration extract for overseas legal entities, and certified priority documentation (for claimants exercising six-month Paris Convention priority).
2. Supplementary materials for trademark assignment recordal: Executed written trademark transfer deed, INPI TM transfer application form, assignee’s local agent power of attorney, sworn translated corporate identity papers for foreign transferees and official assignment filing fee payment receipt1mark.ar.
2026 Official INPI Administrative Fee Structure (Priced in UMAPI inflation-indexed tariff units per INPI Resolution 75/2026 effective 1 April 2026): Single-class trademark base filing fee 1 UMAPI (covers up to 20 goods items per class); each additional separate Nice class 1 UMAPI; each extra goods item exceeding 20 per class 0.05 UMAPI; ten-year trademark renewal 1 UMAPI; trademark assignment recordal 1 UMAPI; third-party trademark opposition filing 1 UMAPI; mid-term sworn declaration of use zero official filing fee. All INPI official administrative tariffs are non-refundable upon payment submission1mark.ar.
INPI examiners validate the legal qualification of the appointed Argentine local IP attorney, completeness of all application documents, trademark graphic format compliance and accuracy of Nice classification specifications. Applications lacking a valid domiciled local representative or properly authenticated power of attorney are rejected outright with no supplementary correction windowdeveloparg....
INPI examiners conduct two layers of substantive review: first, absolute grounds assessment (lack of distinctiveness, generic/descriptive terminology, misleading geographical indications, public morality violations); second, relative conflict search against all prior registered and pending trademark applications for identical or confusingly similar marks covering matching or related goods/services. Where substantive objections are raised via formal office action, the local Argentine agent must submit comprehensive written rebuttal arguments within 60 calendar dayslexorbium.....
Applications approved after substantive review are published in INPI’s national Trademark Bulletin for a fixed 30-calendar-day opposition period. Any natural person or legal entity holding legitimate legal interest may file formal written opposition submissions within this 30-day publication window; INPI has no statutory authority to grant extensions to the opposition deadlinedeveloparg....
The trademark applicant’s local attorney must serve a formal counter-statement in response to opposition grounds within 30 days of receiving the opposition notification, followed by limited rounds of documentary and witness evidence exchange. The INPI Trademark Registrar issues a binding written opposition ruling; parties dissatisfied with the administrative decision may file an appeal before the Federal Civil and Commercial Appellate Court within 30 working days of ruling issuanceWorld Inte....
Uncontested trademark applications receive an electronic official registration certificate upon approval. All trademark proprietors remain subject to three perpetual ongoing compliance requirements throughout the registration term: timely ten-year renewals, mandatory fifth-to-sixth-year mid-term sworn declaration of use, and maintenance of continuous genuine domestic commercial use to defend potential caducidad non-use cancellation proceedings. Trademark licence agreements do not require compulsory INPI recordal, yet only formally registered licensees acquire independent procedural standing to initiate civil trademark infringement litigation before Argentine federal courtsChambers a....
International exporters frequently overlook Argentina’s jurisdiction-exclusive trademark statutory rules, resulting in irreversible forfeiture of exclusive trademark rights across Argentine territory:
1. Madrid Protocol exclusion compliance trap: Global brand portfolios relying solely on WIPO international Madrid registrations cannot obtain any trademark protection within Argentina; separate independent single-class national filings with INPI are mandatory for each product category, with no streamlined multi-country extension mechanism availablesupport.pr....
2. Unique mid-term sworn declaration of use deadline risk: The five-to-six-year mid-term filing window is a rigid statutory deadline with no grace period. Missing this filing window triggers a legal presumption of non-use, which automatically blocks trademark renewal and enables competitors to fully cancel the registration via caducidad proceedingssupport.pr....
3. Strict domestic genuine use evidentiary threshold for caducidad defences: Evidence submitted to resist five-year non-use revocation must prove actual commercial circulation of goods bearing the mark within Argentine national territory. Pure cross-border online sales, overseas warehouse stock and foreign e-commerce order records are legally inadmissible as proof of domestic trademark use in administrative revocation hearingsMiranda AP....
4. Unrecorded trademark assignment title risk: Cross-border brand M&A and trademark divestment transactions completed without formal INPI assignment recordal create critical title defects. The original trademark proprietor retains formal legal ownership on the INPI registry and may lawfully re-transfer the identical mark to a separate third-party purchaser, with the earlier unrecorded transfer carrying no legal priority to contest the subsequent conflicting assignmentWorld Inte....
1. Independent Single-Class INPI National Filing + Long-Term Local Distributor Registered Licensee Recordal (Brands establishing formal exclusive Argentine retail & distribution networks): Appoint local Argentine authorised distributors as formally registered trademark licensees, granting independent civil infringement litigation and customs anti-counterfeiting enforcement rights, while systematically archiving domestic sales, packaging and advertising evidence to satisfy both mid-term use declaration obligations and potential caducidad revocation defences. This model is optimal for brands maintaining local Argentine warehouses, national retail partnerships or domestic manufacturing production facilities.
2. Phased Multi-Class Sequential National Filing Strategy (Mid-Sized Regional Latin American Export Enterprises): File core high-priority product Nice classes first for immediate market protection, then submit supplementary single-class applications for secondary and extended product categories in successive annual cycles, balancing upfront trademark filing cost expenditure and cross-border supply chain intellectual property risk coverage across Argentina’s domestic market.
3. Dual Risk-Mitigation Layout: Registered Statutory Trademark Rights + Documented Common Law Pre-Registration Use Evidence (Brands conducting preliminary Argentine market testing and pre-launch pilot sales): Initiate formal single-class INPI trademark applications at the earliest market entry stage, while systematically preserving full written records of all early domestic Argentine commercial use (sales receipts, local marketing materials, retail distribution logs) to establish fallback common law passing-off rights pending formal trademark registration grant, providing limited defensive protection against local copycat competitors during the application examination period.
1. Global brand management teams mistakenly assume WIPO Madrid international registrations can extend trademark coverage to Argentina, failing to submit separate mandatory single-class national filings with INPI and losing all domestic Argentine trademark exclusive rights.
2. Foreign trademark owners overlook the mandatory fifth-to-sixth-year mid-term sworn declaration of use statutory deadline, missing the rigid filing window and triggering an irrebuttable legal presumption of non-use that blocks trademark renewal and exposes the mark to full caducidad cancellation by market competitors.
3. Cross-border brand M&A transaction parties execute trademark transfer purchase agreements without completing formal INPI trademark assignment recordal, creating severe title defects that allow the original registered proprietor to lawfully re-sell the identical trademark to competing third-party purchasers.
4. Multinational consumer goods brands rely exclusively on overseas cross-border e-commerce sales data as purported proof of domestic Argentine trademark use, failing to maintain local Argentine sales invoices, product packaging or national advertising records and being unable to submit valid evidence to defend against third-party caducidad five-year non-use revocation applications.
1.IPcrossark：https://www.ipcrossark.com/en/trademark.html?cid=79
2.WIPO WIPOLEX Full English Consolidated Text of Argentina Trade Marks Act No. 22.362 (2018 Revised): https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/legislation/details/19069World Inte...
3.Official INPI Argentina National Institute of Industrial Property Government Portal: https://www.argentina.gob.ar/inpi亿佰倍懂商...
4.INPI Online Electronic Trademark Filing & Official Search Portal: https://portaltramites.inpi.gob.ar/亿佰倍懂商...
5.WIPO Regional Latin America IP Resource Hub Argentina Trademark Practice Guidelines: https://www.wipo.int/americas/en/resources/trademarks/
