INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

 

Intellectual Property Rights Protection

Not only is Costa Rica involved in signing all major international agreements regarding trademarks, copyrights and patents, but it is also a member of WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization); also, in 1999, it came into compliance with the Word Trade Organization TRIPS agreement.

 

Copyrights

Ratification of the WIPO Copyright Treaty, along with the Performances and Phonograms Treaty, by Costa Rica National Assembly provides specific protection for computer software and satellite transmissions.
Costa Rica has made great advances in seriously curtailing video, software and satellite transmission piracy.

 

Patents

Costa Rica ratified the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1995; this, plus the reforms made to a new patent law around 1999, brought Costa Rica closer to fulfilling its WTO obligations. This reform, as it currently stands, provides a complete 20-year patent protection for all inventions, even those "in the public interest".

 

Trademarks

The legal recourse against the widespread practice of counterfeiting well-known trademarks in Costa Rica was further reinforced by signing the Central American Convention for the Protection of Trademarks in 1994, and an amending protocol to bring the whole into compliance with the TRIPS Agreement on 1999.

 

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