On November 1, 2019, trademark priority documents will be issued only digitally, as ordered by Resolution N° 275/2019 (October 4, 2019) which establishes this new type of issuance as Title V to the Annex of Resolution N° 123/2019 (May 23, 2019).
Thanks to this new regulation, priority documents will be issued and signed digitally, and also will be incorporated into the digital file (“grilla digital”) hosted on the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) Website, and, as a result, priority documents will no longer be issued on paper (Article 8 of the Annex to resolution 123/2019). Thus, from the effective date, the INPI will issue these priority certificates digitally. Likewise, it is important to emphasize that, in Argentina, all official notices and certificates for the registration of new trademarks, renewals, and notifications to the trademark owner will be issued and noticed by electronic means (Article 7 of the Annex to Resolution N° 123/2019).
The implementation of this new modality follows Article 44 of the Annex to Order N° 242/19, which establishes the issuance of official electronic certificates and their digital signature by the National Trademark Office, which finally covers both (new and renewed) trademark titles, as well as priority certificates to be presented in other countries.
The reasoning for this reinforcement on the digitalization of administrative procedures is based on Resolution N° 275/2019, which considers the digital signature as a tool to satisfy the state policy favoring the use of technological tools to simplify administrative procedures. It was also supported by Resolution N° 341 (September 3, 2013), whereby INPI introduced the issuance and digital signature of the certifications granting new trademarks and the renewal of trademark registrations (harmonized with Resolution N° 250 – September 27, 2018 – which established the digital nature and electronic processing of its files).
Thus, INPI’s commitment on the validity of these digital documents, and their value as originals, is consistent with the State Modernization Plan (Order N° 434/2016).