Email notifications now available

The Colombian Trademark Office (TO) last month issued a resolution allowing notices of certain decisions to be issued to relevant parties electronically.

According to the resolution, administrative decisions informing (i) a mark owner that a cancellation action has been filed against its mark, or (ii) the relevant parties that proceedings have ended, may now be served by email. Persons interested in receiving email notifications must apply for the service in writing and must have a valid email address. Once the agreement is signed, the TO will send the applicant a user name and two passwords.

However, upon issuing a relevant decision, the TO will still send the party that applied for email notification a letter informing that it can be notified of the decision, personally (directly at the TO) or by email. The email notification will be considered a simple copy, not a certified one, and the legal terms for appealing the decision or responding to a cancellation action will start the working day following the day of the notification.

Margarita Castellanos, Castellanos & Co, Bogota