Diageo Brands B.V. applied for a tactile trademark before the Colombian Trademarks Office on February 27, 2015.

The description outlined "a texture (surface) embossed with a crackled appearance, chapped or cracked, created from the agglomeration of irregular geometric shapes which include mostly pentagons, rhomboids and hexagons, the sides or line segments are between 3 and 6 mm length and 0.5 0.08 millimeters in height and from 0.1 to 1 mm thick. The sides/line segments and areas contained within these line segments are smooth. The material used in this texture is amber glass in various sizes." The trademark was applied for in class 33, under serial number 15-045738, to distinguish alcoholic beverages, with the exception of beer, and aims at protecting the texture of the bottle of a whiskey, OLD PARR. According to Article 134 of the Colombian Trademark Law, any sign capable of distinguishing goods or services on the market can be registered as a trademark. Furthermore, item f) of the article states that the shapes of the products, their containers and wrappings are registrable as trademarks.

Taking into consideration these legal provisions, the Andean Community of Nations' Court of Justice issued a prejudicial opinion and interpretation on whether or not was the required sign registrable as trademark.

Based on the Court's report, the Trademarks Office eventually granted, through resolution No. 34.530/2016, the required mark in 2016, which constitutes the very first registration of a tactile mark in Columbia.

Source:  http://www.sic.gov.co

This article was previously published on 07 Jul 2016

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