– Law No. 1294 of August 6, 1998, and Regulatory Decree No. 22365 of August 14, 1998, in force since October 1, 1998, as amended.
– Decree No. 5762 of August 16, 2016, adopting the 10th Edition of the Nice Agreement.

– Pan-American Convention of Washington (1929).
– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since June 20, 1987.
– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act (Law No. 300 of January 10, 1994), since May 28, 1994.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement (ratified by Law No. 444 of November 10, 1994).
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), since August 30, 2014.
– Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks, since August 31, 2021.
– Vienna Agreement Establishing an International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks, since February 25, 2023.

Applicant: owner or his legal representative.

Foreigners and nationals not living in the country: may apply through a local Attorney authorized by a certified power of attorney.

Trademarks of foreigners: same protection as for nationals once the mark is registered.

Marks for services: provided for. It is mandatory to specify the services covered.

Marks in colors: trademarks in colors are protectable, but not in one single color only.

Novelty: a trademark must be novel.

Not registrable: signs or emblems which contravene the law, public order, morals and good customs, and those which could be misleading with regard to origin, manufacturing process, characteristics or suitability and purpose of the products or services to which they refer; coats of arms, badges, emblems, names, words and letters, whose use is reserved to the State and other legal entities of public law and international organizations, unless they are applied for by said entities and organizations; usual shapes of a product or recipient, the necessary forms of the product or service rendered, or those that would grant a special advantage, functional or technical, of the product or service referred; a single color; those consisting entirely of a sign designating a generic name or designation of a product or service rendered, or those that could be used in business to clarify or describe any characteristic of the product or service; identical or similar signs to a registered trademark by a third party, for the same product or service, or different products or services when they could cause risk of confusion for association; signs constituting a total or partial reproduction, imitation, translation, transliteration or transcription of an identical or similar distinctive sign, well-known by a certain part of the public, belonging to a third party, whichever the products or services are, when use of such products or services could be susceptible to confusion for association or if such use could constitute dilution of the trademark; signs infringing a copyright or industrial property of a third party, signs applied or registered by persons who had no interest or by persons who might know of the property of the sign; names, nicknames, pseudonyms or photographs that could be related to living persons, unless their consent is obtained, or deceased, without the consent of their heirs up to and including the fourth degree of consanguinity or any sign that could affect the personality of a third party, unless he grants his consent.

Certification marks: any trademark whose characteristics or quality have been certified by the owner of the trademark.

Collective marks: any visible sign which serves to distinguish the origin or any other common characteristic of different companies which use the mark under the control of the proprietor.

Commercial names: receive protection without the necessity of a registration.

Priorities: according to Pan-American Convention of Washington (1929) and Paris Convention.

Classification: the International Classification of Goods and Services. One application must be filed for each class. Whole class coverage is possible only for products.

Territory covered: Paraguay.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. Power of attorney, notarized -valid for subsequent applications of the same owner;
2. Denomination of the trademark and/or design or label;
3. Name and address of the applicant;
4. Goods, products and/or services to which the trademark applies, according to the International Classification; services must be specified in details;
5. 10 facsimiles of the trademark (can be prepared locally);
6. Electrotype, if required (can be prepared locally).

Telegraphic order: in urgent cases, e-mail or facsimile authorization is accepted for filing applications.

Electronic filing: available since April 2020. 

Electronic signatures: are not accepted (only wet signatures).

Amendment of application: possible, before registration.

Examination: formal, before publication, and for anteriorities, after publication.

Publication: after formal examination, for three consecutive days in any local newspaper.

Opposition: if a trademark is confusingly similar to a prior registration, opposition may be raised before the Industrial Property Department within a sixty-working-day term to be counted from the last publication date. When replying to the opposition, the interested party can demand for non-use of the trademark. In this case, the non-use demand will be solved at the court. The procedure will remain pending until the final decision is rendered by the court.

Letters of consent: a legalized letter of consent is accepted by the Trademark Office in order to overcome an objection based on an older registration.

Disputes about ownership: the first application is given priority.

Application kept secret: not possible.

Appeal: appeals may be filed to the Director of the Industrial Property Office.

Urgent registration: possible by cable, telex or facsimile authorization, signed by the applicant to be validated within sixty days.

Correction of registration: not possible.

Loss of priority rights: the abandonment of an application for registration of a trademark for ninety days will result in the loss of priority rights.

Delivery of document: the registration certificate, signed by the Director and Secretary of the Industrial Property Department, is issued five to eight months after the filing date.

Beginning of protection: from date of grant.

Kind of property: the right of exclusive use in Paraguay.

Duration: ten years from the date of granting.

Renewal: a registration can be renewed indefinitely for subsequent periods of ten years.

Latest term for renewal: the day of expiration of the ten-year term.

Term of grace for renewal: six months with fine, according to the Paris Convention.

Well-known marks: are protected against dilution.

User rights: trademark rights can only be obtained through registration, however, in some cases prior user rights are recognized.

Obligation to use: use is mandatory. A trademark must be used within five years following granting of registration.

Marking of registered goods: not mandatory.

Modification of the mark: permitted, provided if in the Director’s opinion there is no substantial change in the mark.

Changes in the list of goods: enlargement is not permitted.

Assignment: possible, total or partial, no special form is required, but the document must be legalized by the Paraguayan Consulate. Recordal of assignment is mandatory.

Rights of prior user: if a trademark has been registered in bad faith and the owner found guilty, a prior user may file a cancellation suit. The prior user has no obligation to file an application for the same mark.

Opposition to registered marks: not possible. Opposition may only be filed against applications before the expiration of the sixty-working-day term after publication.

Expropriation: not provided for in the law.

Cancellation action: a trademark can be cancelled if it was registered in violation of the law or if registration was obtained in bad faith. Action may be brought within five years from the registration date before the commercial court. According to Paraguay Civil Code, there is no limitation of time for the nullification action when the registration was obtained in bad faith.

Cancellation action for non-use: may be brought if: (a) a trademark has not been used for five consecutive years after granting of registration; (b) use has been interrupted for over five consecutive years; (c) use has taken place with substantial alterations of the original distinctive character of the trademark as described in the original registration certificate. For trademarks already registered before entry into force of the new trademark law, the five-year term will be counted from October 1, 1998, date when the new Law No. 1294 entered into force. If non-use is justified, the cancellation action will not be accepted. The plaintiff obtaining a favorable decision shall have the priority right to file for a trademark application within three months from the date of final decision.

Use: should be performed in quantity in accordance with the size of the market, and with the nature of products or services rendered. Advertising can be admitted as use. Use in any foreign country shall constitute valid use. Proof of use may be evidenced by all means admitted by law. The court will decide what may be considered as use or non-use.

Registration of expired marks: possible, at any time. Any interested party can re-file an identical mark when validity has expired due to non-renewal.

Licenses: all licenses must be recorded with the Industrial Property Department in order to be enforced against third parties. Any license agreement must include provisions which assure control by the proprietor on the quality of the products and services included in the license, as well as provisions stating the exclusiveness or non-exclusiveness of the license agreement.

Infringement: the owner of a registered trademark can bring judicial actions against the infringer within two years of him becoming aware of the infringement, or within four years after the infringement was committed for the last time. Precautionary measures can be taken as below.

Denomination of origin: denomination of origin is protected and the law recognizes that it belongs exclusively and jointly to the manufacturers established in a particular area.

Unfair competition: any act contrary to honest and normal practice in industrial or commercial matters constitutes an act of unfair competition. The injured party is entitled to take legal action within two years of his becoming aware of an unfair act, or within four years after the unfair act was committed for the last time.

Criminal provisions: for unfair competition and/or counterfeiting, a criminal action must be brought within a period of two years. Imprisonment and/or fines will be imposed.

Precautionary measures: the court is empowered to take measures such as: immediate cessation of the acts that constitute the infringement; embargo or seizure of the products, packaging, labels and other materials, and of the machinery used to commit the infringement. In penal jurisdiction, said means shall be immediately destroyed if experts confirm the infringement; suspension of importation or exportation of the products; suspension of the effects of registration and use of the trademark while the judicial action is pending.

Border measures: customs authorities may, at the request of a legitimate party, suspend the importation or exportation of goods suspected of infringement. An official Registry is created at Customs to record trademarks intended to be protected. Following the communications of the Customs’ actions, the trademark owner can initiate legal action within ten days after notification of the measures taken.