Trademarks are governed by Law 22.362 and regulatory decrees. They consist of one or more words with or without ideological meaning as well as any sign with distinctiveness such as sounds or aromas. Among its functions they serve to identify products and services and they have a paramount role in the origin identification.

They are registered before the Instituto Nacional de la Propiedad Industrial (INPI/PTO). The procedure until its registration takes between 8 to 14 months in smooth prosecution. Once granted a registration certificate is issued in favor of the applicant.

Their duration is of 10 years and can be renewed for the same term as long as they have been used within five years prior to their renewal deadline.

Registration of a mark consists of a property right that bestows to the applicant exclusiveness and the possibility to initiate actions against any unauthorized use.

Patents and Utility Models are governed by Law 24,572, which states that any human creation that allows the transformation of matter or energy for its use by man, is to be considered an invention.

Patent Inventions of products or procedures may be patented as long as they are new, involve an inventive step, and are capable of industrial application.

Patents are registered before the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI/PTO). The registration process takes from three to four years approximately. Once the patent is granted, a property title is issued on behalf of the applicant, granting him the protection of his invention for twenty years, counted from the application filing date.

Patent registration consists in a property right that grants its owner the exclusive use of his invention and the possibility of preventing third parties from using it, hence the importance of obtaining its registration.

Utility models consist of any new arrangement or shape introduced into known tools, work instruments, utensils, devices or objects, as long as they imply a better use in the function to which they are destined.

Once its registration has been obtained, it confers to the owner the exclusive right of exploitation for a non-extendable period of ten years , counted from the application date.

Models and Industrial Designs are governed by Decree-Law 6,673/63, and they consist in the forms incorporated to an industrial or artisan product and confer an ornamental character to it.

Models are three-dimensional, while Industrial Designs are two-dimensional.

In order to be registered, models must be new and innovative, that is, they must not be published or exploited publicly, in the country or abroad, prior to the date of application. They must also have their own and novel configuration and physiognomy with respect to previous models or industrial designs and their elements must not be imposed by the technical function that the product must perform.

Models and Industrial Designs are submitted before the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI/PTO). Protection is granted for five years from the date of deposit and can be renewed for two consecutive periods of the same duration. After that, they are public domain.

The owner obtains the right to prevent unauthorized reproduction or imitation by third parties of his model or industrial design, hence the importance of having its registration.

Author’s rights are governed by Law 11,723, which protects all original scientific, literary, artistic, or didactic production, and software by any means of reproduction.

Author´s rights protection will cover the specific form of expression of mathematical ideas, procedures, methods of operation, and concepts but not those ideas, procedures, methods, and concepts themselves.

Argentina has signed numerous international treaties related to the protection of author’s rights, such as the Berne Convention, by which reciprocity of protection is granted to foreign works whose owners belong to countries who have adhered to the Convention.

Although work is protected from the moment of its creation, it is always advisable to deposit it in the National Directorate of Author’s Rights or its cooperating entities to obtain a certain date.

An author’s right over most of the works corresponds to it throughout their lives and to their heirs or successors in title for up to seventy years, to count from January 1st of the year following the author’s death. Other works have different duration such as pictures whose validity is of 20 years as from the publication date.