DoMInICAn REPUBLIC
types of rules did not exist in the Dominican Republic prior to the followed very closely. Codetel (a Dominican telecommunications company
new legislation. and subsidiary of Telmex) was sued by the author of a song that is used
(presumably illegally) on its website. Th is is the fi rst case to test the ‘safe
Th e National Council of Competitiveness (CNC) is responsible for
harbour’ provisions that protect Internet service providers (ISPs) from
promoting the new corporation law and ensuring that the new corporation
liability for the copyright infringing acts of their users. Th ese ‘safe harbour’
rules facilitate business in the Dominican Republic.
provisions are contained in the DR-CAFTA, with the same scope as the
Th e Doing Business 2010 report, published by the World Bank, ranks the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States.
Dominican Republic in 86
th
place out of 183 listed countries—a marked
improvement from 102
nd
place in the 2009 report. status of intellectual property protection
Th e Dominican Republic modernised its intellectual property regime
numeric portability in 2000 in response to its obligations under TRIPS (Agreement on Trade
Another development in 2009 saw the Dominican Telecommunications
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights). Th e new laws include all
Institute (Indotel) order that a cellular phone client is allowed to switch
the necessary tools to ensure intellectual property protection in the
to another operator at any time and retain their telephone number. Th e
Dominican Republic.
Dominican Republic is only the third country in Latin America to implement
numeric portability, pursuant to its obligations under the US-Dominican
Copyright in the digital millennium
Republic Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA). Th e copyright law is a modern statute that incorporates the principles of
the Berne Convention, TRIPS and WIPO (World Intellectual Property
Case law developments
Organization) treaties. Th e law covers digital protection in copyright,
including soft ware and databases.
Enforcement of foreign descriptive words in trademark
A landmark decision was issued by the Santo Domingo Court of Appeals in
With the implementation of the DR-CAFTA, Dominican copyright law
2009. Th e decision rendered a mark descriptive even though the mark was
includes all the language found in the WIPO treaties and prohibits all
in a foreign language. Th e mark, Wides, although an English, not a Spanish
circumvention mechanisms.
word, was held to be recognised by the average Dominican consumer as
indicative of wider, broader cigarettes, infl uencing the appeal of the product.
trademarks
Th e trademark protection law of the Dominican Republic provides
false advertising registration for a term of 10 years. Th is legislation also includes unfair
A very interesting case was instituted by the recently formed consumer
competition and confi dential information protection.
protection agency Pro Consumidor, in which the governmental offi ce
Dominican law recognises the rights of well-known trademarks under the
pre-emptively seized all merchandise relating to the toothbrush brand
Paris Convention. Th e owner is entitled to enforce a well-known trademark
‘Matrix’, based on misleading or false advertising representation. Th e
against unfair competition. Dominican law also permits the registration of
toothbrush packaging falsely indicated that the toothbrush had ISO 9001
sounds, odours and any sign that is able to have a graphic representation.
certifi cation and did not include the required information identifying the
importer, distributor or country of origin. Pro Consumidor has scheduled
Trademark owners can also register their trademarks with the customs
hearings against some 12 defendants, including both importers and
authority, which is legally empowered to seize all counterfeit goods. Th ere
retailers, for January 2010. Th is class action seeks permanent injunction and
are several advantages to registering a trademark with customs. First, it
destruction of the off ending merchandise. It is the fi rst major nationwide
provides an ‘alert’ to the authorities about potential trademark counterfeits
seizure conducted since the formation of the Pro Consumidor offi ce.
and their distinguishing characteristics. Next, it enables the authorities to
give proper and diligent information to the owner or its agent about the
safe harbour IsP and copyright violation on the Internet
import and export of counterfeit articles. Finally, this can be achieved
In another potentially signifi cant case initiated in 2009, which should be quickly under the short deadlines involved in customs procedures.
www.worldipreview.com World Intellectual Property Review Digest 2009 63
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