On August 5th, 2022, the Colombian Trademark Office, by means of Resolution No. 51804, ruled that from now on it will accept the registration of similar trademarks in the name of different owners, only when such owners belong to the same business group. Thus, the applicant must file documents proving its relationship with the business group.

Therefore, the Colombian Trademark Office must now, at the time of conducting the registrability examination, will take into account if the background records that could prevent a registration, belong to the same business group of the new r. In the event they do belong, these records will not be considered in relation to the provisions of articles 136 and 161 of Decision 486.

Therefore, whoever is interested in filing a trademark application, or assigning an existing registration, must inform the Trademark Office the situation of the business group to which it belongs, and the authority will confirm the information with the provisions of the Unified Commercial and Social Registry (RUES), in case on national companies.

In the event that the interested party is a foreign entity, in addition to disclosing the situation of the business group to which it belongs, it must provide a statement from the authorized person clearly setting forth the unity direction of the persons of the business group, as well as a document issued by the competent authority of the corresponding jurisdiction, where the unity direction is evidenced. This last document will be necessary only in those cases where it is applicable, otherwise the statement of the authorized person will be enough.