Trademarks, patents and industrial property for companies
A company accumulates industrial property whether or not it plans to: the name it sells under, the domain where it sells and what its team develops. Each is protected by different rules, registries and deadlines. This page explains what they are, how they differ and when to review them.
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In short
In Chile, a trademark belongs to whoever registers it with INAPI: the rights that require registration take full effect from their entry in the register (Article 2 of Law 19.039). Using a name for years gives, at most, a ground to oppose someone else’s registration (Article 20 letter h), not an exclusive right. The .cl domain runs on a separate track: NIC Chile registers it to whoever pays first and has its own dispute system. And what the team invents belongs to the company only if the contracts say so or the law presumes it (Articles 68 and 69).
Company name, trademark and domain: three registrations that do not replace each other
The three usually carry the same name, and that is why they are confused.
Company name (razón social)
The name of the legal entity. It is set in the bylaws when the company is incorporated and identifies it in contracts, invoices and before the State. It does not give an exclusive right to use that name to distinguish goods or services in the market: that right, the one Law 19.039 establishes, comes from the trademark registration.
Trademark
The sign with which the company distinguishes its goods or services (Article 19). It is registered with INAPI for specific classes, lasts ten years and is renewed for equal periods (Articles 23 and 24). It gives its owner the exclusive use, in trade, of what the registration lists (Article 19 bis D).
.cl domain
The address on the internet. NIC Chile registers any available name as soon as it is paid. A trademark registration gives no priority to obtain it, but it does serve, together with other prior rights, to request its revocation when it was registered or is used in bad faith.
When to review a company’s industrial property
The problems show up at foreseeable moments in the life of a company.
- Before launching a name. The search must cover marks that sound alike, not only identical ones, and marks others use without registering them (Article 20 letter h). It is the moment to check, too, whether the domain is available.
- When a founder or an agency files. The owner of the registration is the owner of the mark. If someone other than the company files it, the company will later need a transfer recorded with INAPI (Article 18 bis D).
- When hiring people to develop. Employment and service contracts decide who owns inventions; the section below explains the rules.
- When entering other markets. Protection is territorial: each country requires its own registration, through national filings or through the Madrid Protocol.
- When licensing or franchising. A license to a distributor, a franchisee or a group company binds third parties only once recorded with INAPI (Article 18 bis D).
- Before an investment round or a sale. The legal due diligence checks that the marks are in the company’s name, renewed and in use, and that the contracts leave the inventions in the company.
- Every five and every ten years. After five years without genuine and effective use in Chile, anyone with a legitimate interest may request cancellation (Article 27 bis A); the registration is renewed from six months before expiry until six months after it (Article 24).
Inventions: who owns what the team creates
For most companies the patent question starts with a contract, not with a filing.
In employment and service contracts whose nature is inventive or creative work, the right to apply and the resulting industrial property rights belong exclusively to the employer or to whoever commissioned the service, unless expressly agreed otherwise (Article 68 of Law 19.039). An employee not hired to invent owns their inventions, but if they clearly benefited from knowledge acquired within the company and used its resources, the rights belong to the employer, which must pay additional remuneration (Article 69). These rights cannot be waived in advance (Article 71). Contracts that ignore these rules leave the company exposed precisely when an investor or buyer asks who owns the technology.
.cl domains: how a dispute is resolved
A trademark registration gives no priority before NIC Chile, so the domain is defended on its own rules.
A .cl name is registered as soon as it is paid, and the general way to dispute it is a revocation request. Within the 30 calendar days after a registration is published, the claimant may invoke a preferential interest; after that period, it must prove that the name is identical or confusingly similar to a name or trademark over which it has prior rights, that the holder has no legitimate rights or interests, and that the name was registered or is used in bad faith (sections 19 and 20 of the .CL Registry Regulation). The dispute is decided by an arbitrator acting ex aequo et bono, whose decisions cannot be appealed (section 21). The request costs CLP 46,000 and the arbitrator’s fees, paid by the claimant, start at USD 1,000 for one domain. In 2024, NIC Chile reports, arbitrations lasted 51.9 days on average.
The guides in this series
The legal detail is in the guides: how a company registers its trademark with INAPI, the Madrid Protocol, its good, bad and ugly sides and, for foreign companies, protecting a foreign trademark in Chile.
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Registering a trademark in Chile
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The Madrid Protocol for a Chilean company: the good, the bad and the ugly.
Trademark registration in Chile
INAPI or the Madrid Protocol: protecting a foreign trademark in Chile.
Incorporating an SpA
Capital, reductions, administration, share transfers, object and arbitration: the six bylaw decisions and the two incorporation routes.
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