Updates to the Trademark Registration Procedure in Argentina
Through Resolution 583/2025, published in the Official Gazette of our country on December 11, 2025, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) introduced updates to the administrative procedure for trademark registration.
In an effort to streamline the trademark registration process, the way the Trademarks Office conducts the examination of registrability is being modified, effective today. Moving forward, the TMO will no longer ex officio examine the following grounds for refusal:
- Trademark applications that are similar to those already registered or requested to distinguish the same products or services;
- Trademark applications that are liable to mislead the public regarding the nature, properties, merit, quality, manufacturing techniques, function, origin, price, or other characteristics of the products or services to be distinguished;
- Trademark applications that contain the name, pseudonym, or portrait of a person without the consent of that person or their heirs up to the fourth degree inclusive;
- Trademark applications that contain designations of activities, including names and company names, descriptive of an activity, used to distinguish products.
Consequently, the evaluation and decision to grant or reject a trademark registration on these specific grounds will be reserved exclusively for the initiative of a third party through opposition.
The opposition procedure remains exactly the same and has not been modified.
For your reference, this system mirrors the current practice in the European Union. Effective today, the substantive examination will now focus on grounds for unregistrability related to the sign’s lack of distinctive character and those related to public order, which aim to protect general interests.
Furthermore, Article 2 of the aforementioned Resolution modifies the procedural aspect of the application: Starting March 1, 2026, new trademark applications will undergo the formal examination and registrability analysis immediately and before their publication in the trademark bulletin.
This means that only trademark applications that have successfully passed the substantive examination will be published.
Implications for current trademark applications: Effective immediately, the TMO will cease analyzing and issuing office actions based on the previously mentioned grounds for trademark refusal.
Starting March 1, 2026: The TMO will conduct the substantive examination before publication. Consequently, from that date forward, we will incorporate an internal notification into our process to inform you of the official actions (or objections) or the approval resulting from that examination.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or require further clarification.