Trademark registration in Chile: how your company protects its brand with INAPI

Law 19.039 on Industrial Property defines a trademark as any sign capable of distinguishing goods or services in the market: words, including personal names, letters, numbers, figurative elements, images, combinations of colors, sounds, three-dimensional shapes and combinations of them (Article 19). The rights that require registration take full effect from their registration (Article 2), and each mark is applied for specific goods or services, stating the classes of the international classifier to which they belong (Article 23). The protection, therefore, does not cover the brand in the abstract: it covers what the registration lists.

That is why the company name and the domain do not replace it. The company name identifies the legal entity, and INAPI states that holding a domain is not binding for obtaining a trademark and that a registered trademark gives no priority before NIC Chile. A company that sells under its own name needs the three registrations to point in the same direction.

• Search for earlier marks. INAPI recommends reviewing its databases before filing to avoid oppositions and refusals, and its public search tool is free. That tool, however, searches by exact match, containment, beginning or ending: it does not search by sound. The law does bar marks that resemble earlier ones graphically or phonetically so as to be confusing (Article 20 letter h), so a search that only looks for the identical word leaves the most frequent conflicts out.
• Look also at what is used without registration. The same ground extends to unregistered marks genuinely and effectively used in Chile before the application (Article 20 letter h). A competitor that has sold under a name for years can block a registration of it even if it never filed.
• Avoid descriptive signs. Expressions that indicate the kind, origin, value or quality of the goods, those in general use in trade, and those that lack distinctive character cannot be registered (Article 20 letter e), unless they have acquired distinctiveness through use in the Chilean market (Article 19).
• Choose the classes for the business plan, not only for today’s product. Since January 1, 2026, INAPI applies the 13th edition of the Nice Classification, which has 45 classes, and one application can cover several of them and results in a single registration (Article 23). Each class is paid separately (Article 23 bis D), and the protection reaches only the goods and services listed, extended to identical or similar ones where confusion is likely.
• Use the pre-approved wording when it fits. Applications filed and paid online with pre-approved coverage can benefit from an accelerated formal examination; editing a pre-approved term loses that status.

A frequent mistake in growing companies is that the mark ends up in the name of a founder, a partner company or the agency that designed it. Any later change of owner is a transfer that must be recorded with INAPI: transfers, licenses, pledges and other encumbrances have no effect against third parties until they are recorded (Article 18 bis D). In a sale of the company or an investment round, a mark held by the wrong person turns into a condition precedent, and the legal due diligence is where it usually surfaces.

1. Filing

   The application is filed online, which is the rule, paying 1 UTM per class; without that payment it is not processed (Article 18 bis B).

2. Formal examination

   INAPI checks the formal requirements. If it finds an error or omission, the applicant has 30 days to correct it without losing the priority date; otherwise the application is deemed abandoned (Article 22).

3. Publication

   Once the application is accepted, the applicant must request the publication of an extract in the Diario Oficial within 20 days; if not, the application is deemed not filed (Article 4 of the law and Article 13 of its regulation, DS 82).

4. Opposition period

   Any interested party may oppose within 30 days from the publication (Article 5). Answering an opposition requires a lawyer, and the case then follows an adversarial procedure with its own evidence period.

5. Substantive examination

   When the opposition period ends, INAPI examines whether there are grounds to refuse the mark on its own motion. If it issues a substantive objection, the applicant has 30 days to answer, and the application can only be refused on grounds raised in the oppositions or in the objections (Articles 9 and 22).

6. Decision and registration

   If the mark is granted, the applicant pays the remaining 2 UTM per class within 60 days, or the application is deemed abandoned (Article 18 bis E). The decision can be appealed within 15 days to the Industrial Property Court (Article 17 bis B).

Fees paid are not refunded, even if the application is refused. Since September 1, 2023, the registration title is issued free of charge.

• Renew on time. The registration lasts ten years from its entry in the register and can be renewed for equal periods from six months before expiry until six months after it; if that window passes, the registration lapses (Article 24).
• Use it, and keep evidence of use. After five years without genuine and effective use in Chile, by the owner or by a third party with its consent, anyone with a legitimate interest may request cancellation (Articles 27 bis A and 27 bis B). For marks registered before Law 21.355, that period counts from their first renewal after the law came into force.
• Mark it as registered. A mark in use must visibly carry "Marca Registrada", "M.R." or the letter R in a circle. Omitting it does not affect validity, but without it the owner cannot bring the criminal actions of the law (Article 25).
• Record licenses and transfers. A license to a distributor, a franchisee or a group company binds third parties only once recorded with INAPI (Article 18 bis D).

The owner may sue for the cessation of the infringing acts, damages, the measures needed to prevent the infringement from continuing and the publication of the judgment (Article 106). Damages may be measured by the profits lost, by the profits the infringer obtained or by a reasonable license fee, and for counterfeit goods the owner may instead claim a lump sum of up to 2,000 UTM per infringement (Article 108). Separately, the malicious commercial use of an identical or similar registered mark is punished with fines of 25 to 1,000 UTM (Article 28), and counterfeiting a registered mark for the same goods or services, or manufacturing, importing, stocking or selling counterfeit goods for profit, carries a prison sentence of reclusión menor in its minimum to medium degree (Article 28 bis).

The reverse situation also has a deadline. A registration obtained in breach of the prohibitions of Article 20 can be annulled, but the action expires five years after the registration, except for registrations obtained in bad faith, which never become immune (Articles 26 and 27).

A Chilean company that exports or sells online to other countries can extend its mark through the Madrid Protocol, using the Chilean application or registration as its base. Its advantages and its traps are in international trademark registration. For a foreign company protecting its brand in Chile, see trademark registration for foreign companies.