In January this year, the Government of Venezuela published a revised Exchange Agreement. It sets out the new foreign currency system base which must be used to calculate and pay official fees at public authorities. This obviously includes fees paid at the national IP Office.

In light of this situation, SAPI issued a communication on 2 February which informed that in order to preserve rights from third parties in regards to trade marks or patents subject to payment of official fees due to deadlines, such as renewals, annuities or granting fees, a brief confirming the interest in securing/maintaining those rights, will be sufficient until further notice, since payment of official fees is suspended until SAPI receive new instructions from the Secretary of Finance concerning the new official fees system to be implemented.

Brand owners holding trade mark rights in Venezuela should thus be alert to this new situation.

Not only must brand owners make sure that the mentioned notices are filed in connection with pending applications and registrations that might be up for renewal, they may also want to ensure that their representative is sent the official fees in question notwithstanding the fact that fees cannot be paid at the Office. The reason for this perhaps unconventional step is the likelihood that when the Office publishes the new official fees, the deadline to pay the amounts that suddenly become due is expected to be extremely short.

It is better to be prepared than to be unable to pay and lose your rights.