The Historical Evolution of Trademark Legal Frameworks and Registration In Latin America: the Argentine experience

LLUCH ANDREA

Philadelphia

Congreso; 2012 Business History Conference; 2012

Business History Conference

This paper discusses the relationship between politics and trademark regulations in Latin America during the first part of the twentieth century, focusing in the Argentine experience. It studies how trademark regulations have also been part of industrial promotion policies in Argentina since the 1920s. However, at the same time, they created a new area of potential conflict between the State and business interests. The main argument of the paper is that political considerations have influenced trademark uses in countries with a high share of non-resident trademark registrations and a strong preference for foreign made goods. These findings introduce a complementary approach to the debate about the role of the State in Latin America?s economic development. In particular, the paper shows that governments viewed trademarks as a device to promote local industries in the 1920s and the national identity in the 1940s. This view shifted once again during the second post-war period, as new economic development paradigms and, notably, the so-called developmentalism changed the way in which trademarks were conceived (as property) in many countries of Latin America (a third stage).