Legal Update 2021

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December

ARGENTINE COUNTRY BRAND

By María Luisa Santa María and Delfina Sejas. On November 4, 2021, Resolution 60/2021 of the Argentine Ministry of Tourism and Sports was published in the Official Gazette. This Resolution approves the “Regulation of the Argentine Country Brand” (the “Regulation”), along with the “Manual of Use of the Argentine Country Brand” (the “Manual”) and the “Argentine Country […]

By Camila Sirianni and Julieta Perez Espinosa. Paulo Londra’s case highlights the importance of having legal advice before signing an agreement, in order to avoid copyright infringement to musicians -and all artists-, who, in general, due to their inexperience, agree on conditions that lead to damaging contracts, and then they are held hostage to what they […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo On November 5, 2021, the Court of Appeals in Commercial matters of the City of Buenos Aires (“Court of Appeals”) ordered Almundo, an Argentine travel agency, to deliver the plane tickets in the same conditions as it was advertised as well as to pay a compensation of Argentine Pesos 250,000 as punitive […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Belen Sorrentino On November 11, 2021, Regulation No. 8/2021 of the National Directorate of Cybersecurity within the structure of the Argentine Chief of Cabinet was published in the Argentine Official Gazette. This regulation approves the introductory guidelines on security for the development of web applications (“Guidelines”). The regulation is aimed at […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti, Santiago Durañona and Antonella Balbo. Guide on international data transfers On November 11, 2021, the Ibero-American Data Protection Network (“Network”) released a draft Guide for the implementation of standard contractual clauses that can be used to validate international data transfers (“Guide”). The Network had expected to gather the views and concerns of all interested […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Belen Sorrentino. During the last weeks the Agency for Access to Public Information (“Agency”) has imposed sanctions to different organizations for violations to the Personal Data Protection Law No. 25.326 (“PDPL”) as follows: Football club associations In the context of three different inspection proceedings conducted by the Agency, three Football club associations were required […]

Argentine Congress passed the Front-of-Package Labelling Law

By María Luisa Santa María, Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo. The Bill on the Promotion of Healthy Eating, also known as the “Front-of-Package Labelling Law” (the “Law”), was passed by the Argentine Congress. The Senate approved the Bill on October 29, 2020. Then, it was approved by the General Legislation, Public Health and Social Action, Consumer Protection, and Industry […]

By Raquel Flanzbaum and Antonella Balbo. On October 14, 2021, the Inter-Institutional Council of Science and Technology (“CICyT” for its acronym in Spanish), issued Administrative Decisions No. 970/2021 and 973/2021, approving the Comprehensive Plan for the Strengthening of the Human Resources of the organizations that form it (“Plan”). We may recall that the National Science, Technology and Innovation […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo. On October 19, 2021, the Secretariat of Domestic Trade has issued Resolution No. 1040/2021 (“the Resolution”), which approved the Guide on Good Business Practices on Gender and Diversity (“Guide”). The Guide establishes recommendations based on international agreements and on the local experience on how to advertise, establish conditions of care and dignified […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo. We report the latest developments on consumer protection that have taken place during October 2021. (i) New provisions considered as abusive clauses in consumer contracts On October 1, 2021, Resolution No. 994/2021 (“Resolution 994/2021”) issued by the Secretariat of Domestic Trade (“SCI” for its acronym in Spanish) was published in the Official […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Josefina Piñeiro. Recently the National Registry of Persons (knowns as “Renaper” which stands for Registro Nacional de las Personas) suffered a security incident that could have compromised personal data of Argentine citizens according. The Renaper is a public agency within the structure of the Ministry of Inner Affairs in charge of keeping records […]

By Juan Carlos Ojam and Antonella Balbo. We report the latest news concerning the viticulture industry that were recently published in the Official Gazette in Argentina. Authorized varieties for wine elaboration On September 10, 2021, Resolution 21/2021 (“Resolution 21”) of the National Institute of Viticulture (“NIV”) that unifies the authorized varieties for the elaboration of wine was published […]

Respect for Cultural Diversity Day: Intellectual Property and traditional knowledge in Argentina

By Raquel Flanzbaum and Josefina Piñeiro. On October 12th, the Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity is commemorated in Argentina. It is a day of reflection on the intercultural dialogue that should exist in all areas of our society. We invite you to review the legal protection: The Argentine National Constitution recognizes “the ethnic and cultural […]

By Rosario Mauro. This type of patent applications enables applicants to obtain, in an easy and economical way, a priority date in order to protect the novelty of an invention before public disclosure, without the need to meet other formal requirements imposed on regular patent applications. Provisional applications are especially useful when inventors need to […]

By Magdalena Sáenz Lavalle. The Chilean Industrial Property Law has been recently modified due to the publication of Law 21,355. One of the most significant changes is the inclusion of the partial or total trademark cancellation action due to lack of use or genericide (generic trademark). According to this change, all trademarks registered in Latin American […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Valentina González Medina. On September 17, 2021, the Agency for Access to Public Information (“AAPI”), controlling authority of Personal Data Protection Law No. 25,326 (“PDPL”), sanctioned Cencosud SA for violating the provisions of the data protection legal framework as a consequence of a security incident. The AAPI became aware of a data breach that […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo. On September 10, 2021, Resolution 926/2021 (“Resolution”) of the Secretariat of Domestic Trade was published in the Official Gazette. The Resolution complements the Supermarket Shelf Law No. 27,545, providing new obligations for online supermarket stores. The Resolution provides that: (I) the products listed in the Resolution shall be displayed on the homepage […]

Front-of-package label bill – By María Luisa Santa María y Mariano Peruzzotti

What is front-of-package warning labeling? This is a bill which purpose is to provide nutritional information that is simple and understandable about packaged foods and non-alcoholic beverages. In particular, it seeks to warn consumers about excesses of critical nutrients, namely, sugars, sodium, saturated fat, total fat, and calories. How? Through four resources: Warning labels: The […]

By Raquel Flanzbaum and Antonella Balbo. On July 20, 2021, the Argentine Government issued Decree 476 where, from now on, ID Cards and Passports must comply with Law No. 26,743 on Gender Identity, permitting non-binary IDs. The key innovations of the Decree are the following: i. The Citizens National Identity Database (“RENAPER” after its acronym in Spanish) must […]

By Mercedes Bullrich and Antonella Balbo. For the German Federal Court, if there is a chocolate bunny whose golden aluminum wrapping is emblematic, that is the case of Lindt & Sprüngli’s chocolate. The famous Lindt chocolate bunny has been sold with its golden aluminum wrapping since the dawn of its existence, in 1952, and the company of Swiss […]

By Belen Recchini. As a result of the enacting of the Medical and Scientific Research on Medicinal Use of the Cannabis Plant and its Derivatives Law, the number of trademark applications bearing the terms “CANNABIS”, “MARIHUANA”, “THC”, “CBD” and other allusive terms, have significantly increased. The Trademark Office has also modified its criteria of admissibility for […]

By Paula Galván. On July 7, 2021, the General Court of the European Union, in the context of an appeal filed against the European Union Intellectual Property Office in 2019, confirmed the rejection of an application for the registration of a mark consisting of the combination of sounds made by the opening of a fizzing […]

By Camila Sirianni. On May 27, 2021, Chamber A of the Civil Court of Appeals confirmed the rejection of the claim for damages derived from an alleged violation of the Intellectual Property Law, considering that the plaintiff had failed to prove that he was the author’s rights. Julián Boffa sued The Walt Disney Company (“Disney”) […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Valentina González Medina. On July 16, 2021, the Court of Appeals in Civil matters rejected a claim seeking damages for the use of a former employee´s image in an institutional video of a company after termination of the employment relation. The defendant “Taraborelli Automobile S.A”, a local car dealer, produced an institutional video aimed […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo. On August 20, 2021, the People’s Republic of China Congress passed a new national personal data protection law. The Personal Information Protection Law (“the PIPL”) establishes a set of rules on the collection and processing of personal information. Its main purpose is to protect personal information rights and interests, standardize personal information handling […]

We share with you the article “The Olympic Games in past present”, written by Milena Badalamenti and published by Abogados.com.ar. We encourage you to read it! https://bit.ly/3Bsjtzz

Bill on the Promotion of Healthy Eating

By María Luisa Santa María, Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo. The Bill on the Promotion of Healthy Eating, also known as the “Front-packaging Labelling Law”, (the “Bill”) was recently approved by the General Legislation, Public Health and Social Action, Consumer Protection, and Industry Commissions of the House of Representatives. The Senate already approved the Bill […]

By Mariel Chichisola. It is no news that the working environment has become more complex and that the market is increasingly competitive. It is news is that, in this context, where the information is just a click away and professionals have increasingly specific studies, we’ve had to turn and revalue something that is as basic […]

By Belen Recchini. On July 8, 2021, the Argentine Senate passed the Bill that sets the regulatory framework for the production and supply chains of the cannabis plant, its seeds, and its derived products for industrial and medical use, including scientific investigation to satisfy the local market and generate exports, thus promoting the national development of […]

BEYOND DEL FIRMAMENTO[1]. By Diego Montangero. Trademarks refer to specific goods and services. This principle of specialty restricts the scope of each trademark registration or application. However, goods and services may go beyond their specification: two trademarks can be confusingly similar even if they do not identify the same goods or services. Therefore, in cases of […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo. On July 8, 2021, Resolution 696/2021 (“the Resolution”) of the Secretariat of Domestic Trade was published in the Official Gazette. The Resolution complements the Supermarket Shelf Law No. 27,545 (“LG Law”, for its acronym in Spanish) providing specifications for wholesale establishments. The Resolution provides certain guidance on provisions of the LG Law, […]

By Raquel Flanzbaum and Antonella Balbo. On July 14, 2021, the Argentine government issued Decree 460/2021 (“the Decree”), establishing “ARGENTINA’S NATIONAL BRAND” as an Official Brand to formalize and standardize the image of the country in the world. The key innovations of the Decree are as follows: The update of the design of the previous “ARGENTINA’S […]

By Raquel Flanzbaum and Santiago Durañona. EUIPO declares invalid a figurative trademark related to Banksy’s work “Laugh Now”. Reasons of the decision and comments from an Argentinean law perspective On 18 May 2021, the Cancellation Division of the European Intellectual Property Office (“EUIPO”), in decision No. 39873 C, determined that the registered trademark No. 17 981 […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Valentina González Medina. The Agency for Access to Public Information (hereinafter, “AAPI”), controlling authority of Personal Data Protection Law No. 25,326 (“PDPL”), initiated an investigation on security incident affecting the database associated to the site created for obtaining the travel authorizations within the Province of San Juan. This security incident exposed individual’s […]

Repeat trademarks: a comparative analysis We share with you Raquel Flanzbaum’s latest article (page 8) regarding repeat trademarks and a comparative analysis, published by Diario La Ley.We encourage you to read it!

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Valentina González Medina. On a split decision the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice (“SC”) recently ruled a new case on civil liability of Internet search engines. Following the criteria of the leading cases “Rodríguez” and “Gimbutas”, the SC understood that search engines are not liable for third-party generated content since it constitutes the legitimate […]

The Madrid Protocol in Latin América: a practical perspective

By Raquel Flanzbaum. The Madrid Protocol is part of a system for registering trademarks where, on the basis on a national application, protection in a number of countries or jurisdictions that adhered to the Protocol can be obtained. That application for trademark protection is called international application, which is processed with the intervention of the World […]

By Mariel Chichisola and Octavio Krausse. We would like to take advantage of this newsletter to comment on a case that caught our attention, not only because it involved a well-known trademark, but also because it is useful to raise a question that usually arises in our practice at the Firm: Can a generic trademark […]

By María Luisa Santa María and Magdalena Sáenz Lavalle. As of January 1, 2021, resulting from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Brexit), the EU trademarks have lost their validity in the United Kingdom. As a result, the inevitable question arises as to what happens to the trademark registrations which, up […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Valentina González Medina. The Agency for Access to Public Information (AAPI), controlling authority of Personal Data Protection Law No. 25,326 (PDPL), released on June 15, 2021, a list of recommendations aimed at protecting personal data when using different videocall platforms. The AAPI recommendations are the following: Read the conditions and privacy policies of […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo. On May 31, 2021, Rule No. 357/2021 (“Rule”) of the National Directorate of Consumer Protection and Consumer Arbitration that extends the list of services that are compelled to implement the “Unsubscribe Button” was published in the Official Gazette. The Unsubscribe Button was established by Regulation No. 316/18 of the former […]

By Juan Carlos Ojam and Antonella Balbo. We report the latest legal news related to the viticulture industry in Argentina: Minimum degrees of alcoholic content for 2021 Harvests On May 31, 2021, Resolution 7/2021 (“Resolution 7/21”) of the National Institute of Viticulture (“NIV”) was published in the Official Gazette. This new rule sets the minimum degrees of generic […]

By Belen Recchini and Antonella Balbo. Recently, a Bill promoted by the Minister of Productive Development (hereinafter “the Bill”) has been presented to the National Congress, seeking to regulate the development of the Medical Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Industry. The Bill aims to provide regulation on public and private investment throughout the production and supply […]

By Paula Caraffa Morando. E-commerce has gained ground over traditional commerce, a trend that not only has no turning back but is being accelerated by the COVID 19 pandemic. Mercado Libre (“MELI”) is one of the platforms with the greatest penetration in e-commerce in Argentina and other countries within the region and, as such, it […]

About the so-called “repeat trademarks”

By Raquel Flanzbaum. In a recent resolution, dated April 21, 2021, the enlarged Sixth Chamber of the General Court of the European Union confirmed the decision of the lower court of the European Union Patent and Trademark Office (EUIPO), which had declared the registration of the European MONOPOLY trademark partially invalid, as it had been […]

By María Luisa Santa María. Proof of use: A valuable guide by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office In March, 2021, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office issued its Informative Guide on Evidence of Use. These guidelines consist in a compilation of some principles already recognized by the Argentine courts, but also provide a systematized […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Valentina Gonzáles Medina. In this BeNews edition we comment on three news concerning privacy that took place during the last weeks: (i) a sanction imposed on a company for not responding to a request to delete personal data; (ii) the order to suspend the update of the privacy policies of WhatsApp; […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti, Juan Carlos Ojam and Santiago Durañona. On April 5, 2020, and after almost 11 years of litigation, the Supreme Court of Justice of the United States ruled in favor of Google LLC (“Google”) in a copyright infringement case brought by Oracle America, INC (“Oracle”). This ruling introduces very interesting issues regarding the […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Valentina Gonzáles Medina. This edition includes a brief comment about Communication “A” 7266 of the Central Bank of Argentina on guidelines for security incidents response and recovery, the creation of the Advisory Committee for the Development and Implementation of Secure Applications and the signature of an Agreement between the Legal and Technical […]

By Belen Recchini. The Ministry of Health and the National Seeds Institute (INASE, by its initials in Spanish) issued Joint Resolution No. 5/2021 (“Resolution”) authorizing the registration of a national germplasm of Cannabis sativa L. for medicinal use under the National Register of Cultivars (RNC, by its initials in Spanish) and/or the National Register of […]

By Juan Carlos Ojam and Antonella Balbo. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF VITICULTURE We share below the latest legal news related to the viticulture industry in Argentina. Recognition of “Victoria” as a Geographical Indication On May 4, 2021, Resolution 5/2021 (“Resolution 5/2021”) of the National Institute of Viticulture (“NIV”) was published in the Official Gazette. This Resolution provides […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Antonella Balbo. We provide below a brief report on the developments taken place during the last weeks on Fair Trade and Consumer Protection, namely: (i) the one stop shop scheme for consumers’ claims; (ii) labelling oversight; and (iii) the approval of the Code of Good Practices for Wholesale and Retail Distribution […]

When a country approves a patent, it grants the owner an exclusive right of exploitation for a limited period (20 years in Argentina) for new and highly inventive developments. A great deal has been said about this monopoly and its supposedly disvalued implications to society as a result of the intellectual protection of COVID-19 vaccines. […]

“An approach to the gender equality in Argentina” article written by Raquel Flanzbaum for WIPR

We congratulate Raquel Flanzbaum for her article “IP law in Latin America: an approach to gender equality in Argentina” for WIPR – World IP Review, which was published on the newsletters: WIPR Bulletin and WIPR’s Influential Women in IP. In this article, she explores how gender diversity is addressed in Argentina. We invite you to read it: https://bit.ly/2OWV3vu

We share with you Mariano Peruzzotti’s latest article regarding the disclosure of information about individuals vaccinated against COVID-19, published by Diario La Ley. We encourage you to read it! https://lnkd.in/eMZJcRX

By Diego Montangero. On March 11, 2021, Division 1 of the Federal Court of Appeals in Civil and Commercial Matters in the city of Buenos Aires confirmed the district court’s decision which declared grounded the opposition against trademark application for “FAMILIAS SABORIZADAS” (“FLAVORED FAMILIES”), filed by SOCIÉTÉ DES PRODIUTS NESTLÉ S.A. to distinguish “all the […]

By Raquel Flanzbaum. On February 24, 2021, the Argentine Congress enacted Law No. 27,614 on the Financing of the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation. The main points of the new law are the following: To increase, over a period of time, the percentage of the GDP allocated to science and technology; To advance […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti. Over the last months there have been several developments on privacy as we briefly described below: New Data Protection Authority’s inspection proceedings The Argentine Agency of Access to Public Information (“AAAPI”), controlling authority of Personal Data Protection Law No. 25,326 and Do Not Call Registry Law No. 26,951 introduced changes to the […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti and Milena Badalamenti. On February 22, 2021, Resolution 151/2021 (“Resolution”) of the Secretariat of Domestic Trade was published in the Official Gazette. This Resolution updates the value of the Adjustable Unit (“AU”) used as the monetary coefficient that applies in cases of fines imposed by the Fair Trade regime. As provided in the […]

By María Luisa Santa María. On March 4, 2021, Resolution 08/2021 issued by the Legal and Technical Secretariat was published in the Official Gazette, unifying and updating the official fees for the registration, renewal and assignment of internet domains, and domain name dispute resolution before NIC Argentina. Domain Registration Renewal Transfer Dispute resolution .com.ar Pesos 270 […]

By Mariano Peruzzotti, Paula Caraffa Morando and Mateo Cozzi. On December 14, 2020, the regulation of the Supermarket Shelf Law No. 27.545 (“LG”, for its acronym in Spanish) enacted by the National Congress in 2020, was published in the Official Gazette. Decree No. 991/2020 (“Decree”) regulated aspects of the LG. The main purposes of the LG are […]

We share with you the article “Soccer and image rights: a photograph is worth a thousand words”, written by our partner Raquel Flanzbaum and published by MARCASUR. We encourage you to read it! Soccer and image rights: a photograph is worth a thousand words The protection of the image of the human person is the subject […]

Juan Carlos Ojam collaborated on an article for WTR

We share with you the article “Fame in South America: how to establish and wield well-known status”, published by World Trademark Review, with the collaboration of Juan Carlos Ojam, along with other referents of the region. https://bit.ly/3bEEWvn

Legal Update 2021