IP Legal Frame Work in Costa Rica - Zurcher – Montoya – Zurcher – Firma de Abogados

In Costa Rica, Intellectual Property Rights Protection has a constitutional rank. These rights are recognized in Article 47 of the Political Constitution which reeds: “Any author, producer or merchant shall temporally have the exclusive property of his piece of work, invention, trademark or commercial name, all according to the law.”

The regulatory framework builds from that protection. It is comprised by international agreements (related to intellectual property matters and international trade), laws and regulations that develop the protection and effective enforcement of the rights. The regulatory framework consists in the following:

Copyrights and Related Rights Law No. 6683 of October 14, 1982.
Regulations to Copyrights and Related Rights Law, No. 24611-J, of September 04, 1995.
Regulations to Article 50 of the Copyrights and Related Rights Law, No. 23485-MP of July 05, 1994.
Patents of Invention, Industrial Drawings and Utility Models Law, No. 6867 of April 25, 1983.
Regulations to Patents of Invention, Industrial Drawings and Utility Models Law, No. 15222-MIEM-J of December 12, 1983.
Trademark and Other Distinctive Signs Law, No. 7978 of January 06, 2000.
Regulations to the Trademark and Other Distinctive Signs Law, No. 30233-J, of February 20, 2002.
Protection Law of Integrated Circuit Design Systems, No. 7961 of December 17, 1999.
Non-Disclosure Agreement Law, No. 7975, of January 04, 2000.
Law of Enforcement Proceedings of Intellectual Property Rights, No. 8039, of October 12, 2000.
Biodiversity Law, No. 7788, of April 30, 1998.
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Law No. 7484 of March 28, 1995.
Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and Their International Registration, Law No. 7634, of October 03, 1996.
Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), Law No. 7836 of October 22, 1998.
Brussels Convention Relating to the Distribution of Programmed-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite, Law No. 7829 of September 22, 1998.
Convention establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, Law No. 6468, of September 18, 1980.
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Law No. 6083, of August 29, 1977.
Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations, Law No. 4727 of March 05, 1971
Ginebra Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms, Law No. 6486 of September 25, 1980.
WIPO Copyrights Treaty (WCT), Law No. 7968, of December 22, 1999.
WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT), Law No. 7967 of December 22, 1999.
Costa Rica-Mexico Free Trade Agreement, Law No. 7474 of December 20, 1994.
Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, Law No. 7882 of June 09, 1999.
Costa Rica-Chile Free Trade Agreement, Law No. 8055 of January 04, 2001.
Agreement about Intellectual Property Rights relating to Trade, World Trade Organization, Law No. 7475 of December 20, 1994.

Taking into account the constitutional protection of our legal system, the Costa Rican Government is continuously updating its national legislation in Intellectual Property Rights in order to reach levels of protection in accordance with the international standards and to comply with the multilateral commitments in these matters, as outlined above.