Brazil’s National Institute of Intellectual Property (Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Intelectual/INPI) recently recognized the Kalunga brand as “highly renowned,” thus accepting a claim made by BTLAW’s Intellectual Property team.
A “highly renowned” brand implies protection and exclusivity for the holder in all classes of activity. Normally, ownership of a brand ensures only that the holder possesses exclusive use of it in the company’s own market niche, in classes previously indicated in registration, according to the economic activity that is being carried out – so the “highly renowned” recognition affords great advantages to the brand owner.
INPI based its decision on three requirements: recognition of the brand by a large portion of the general Brazilian public; the quality, reputation and prestige that the Brazilian public associates with the brand and its products and services; and, finally, the brand’s degree of distinctiveness. In order to lead INPI to make this decision, the BTLAW team endeavored in 2020 and 2021 to provide market research and other evidence that the Kalunga brand does in fact possess all these distinctions.
Now the trademark is part of a select group of 146 brands that have already been recognized by INPI as “highly renowned” – such as Fusca, Coca-Cola and Adidas. For the sake of comparison: in the January-February 2022 period alone, a total 29,419 trademarks were registered at INPI – but only a few dozen received special protection following Brazil’s first regulation to recognize “highly renowned” brands in 2013.
Source: https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/servicos/marcas/arquivos/protocolo-de-madri/inpi_marcas_marcas-de-alto-renome-em-vigencia_19_04_2022.pdf; https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/central-de-conteudo/estatisticas/arquivos/publicacoes/boletim-mensal-de-propriedade-industrial-marco-de-2022.pdf/view; https://www.in.gov.br/en/web/dou/-/portaria/inpi/pr-n-8-de-17-de-janeiro-de-2022-375784518.
