 Trademarks registration, Brands and the Development of Marketing Knowledge in Colombia, 1890?1930

LLUCH ANDREA

Seminario; Seminario Agora; 2020

Facultad de Administración, Universidad de los Andes

this paper ?as a first and preliminary step in a broader research project? seeks to study the evolution of legal framework and trademark registration patterns up to 1930, drawing its inspiration from a contribution made by Duguid, Lopes, and Mercer (2010), who have provided an agenda for international comparisons among trademark regimes. My intention then is to investigate, using aggregate data, the features of Latin American countries? trademark registration schemes, and how legal, institutional and economic processes impacted on them. Colombia, in turn, features some specificities ?not only because it was one of the last countries to introduce a modern, specific legislation (unlike what it did as regards patents), but also on account of the low number of registered trademarks (both in absolute and relative terms). Another distinctive trait in Colombia?s case stems from the overwhelming predominance of foreigners in trademark registration. These findings come from the study of the almost 7,500 trademarks issued in Colombia between 1899-1900 and 1930, processing the copies of the original files stored in Colombia?s National Archives. The main source was the Trademark Record Books at the Department of Industry and Commerce (Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio - Archivo General de la Nación). The processing of this data provides a complete longitudinal overview of Colombian trademarks across all industries for the 1896-1930 period. These records have been processed following the guidelines established by Duguid, Lopes and Mercer (2010), who formulated a scheme to study different business trademark registration regime , which will enable future in-depth, international comparative studies. To complement this information, this study has also taken into account foreign reports and data on Colombia?s market, as well as statistical data on imports, jurisprudence, and other documents dating back to this period.