DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Law and Practice Contributed by: Sarah de León Perelló, Elizabeth Silfa Micheli and Naomi Rodríguez Manzueta, Headrick Rizik Álvarez & Fernández
After the trade mark application is filed before ONAPI, the distinctive signs department proceeds with the formal evaluation of the merits. Once the trade mark is approved, it is published in the Official Gazette of ONAPI. After the publication, any third party may file an opposition against the application for registration, within a period of 45 days from the notice’s publication date. After this period has elapsed, and if no opposi - tions are filed, ONAPI proceeds to grant and register the trade mark. Upon registration, a trade mark is valid for ten years from the date on which the registration certificate is issued and may be renewed for successive periods of ten years following the expiration date. The owner has a grace period of six months to proceed with the renewal, after the expiration date. The law establishes criminal and economic sanctions for unauthorised commercial use of a registered trade mark or a fraudulent imitation of a trademark, in rela- tion to the products or services that it distinguishes, or to related products or services. The owner of a reg - istered trade mark can initiate administrative actions against applications or registered trade marks that affect their trade mark, or file civil actions before the relevant court against any person who infringes the rights granted by law, including petitioning for con - servatory measures. 7.3 Industrial Designs According to Law No 20-00, an industrial design is any collection of lines or combinations of colours, or any two-dimensional or three-dimensional external shape that is incorporated into an industrial or handi - craft product, including parts intended for assembly in a complex product, the packaging, presentation, graphic symbols and typographic characters, exclud - ing computer programs, to give it a special appear - ance, without changing the destination or purpose of said product. The right to obtain the protection of an industrial design belongs to the designer(s). The protection is acquired via registration before the inventions department of ONAPI, provided that it is a new design and has a unique character.
The protection of an industrial design does not include the elements or characteristics of the design determined solely by the performance of a technical function that does not incorporate any arbitrary con - tribution of the designer or that its reproduction is nec - essary to allow the product that incorporates it to be mechanically assembled or connected with another product of which it constitutes a part or integral piece. The scope of its protection is to exclude third parties from the exploitation of the industrial design. The application must be filed before ONAPI, includ - ing the details of the applicant, the designer, a brief description of the visible characteristics that appear in each graphic or photographic representation, and the drawings and/or photographs of the industrial design. Once the application is filed, ONAPI’s inven - tions department proceeds with the evaluation of the application to verify if meets the requirements estab - lished to grant protection over the industrial design. The duration of the registration is five years, and it may be extended for two additional periods of five years by paying the established extension fee. 7.4 Copyright Copyright is regulated by Law No 65-00 on Copyright. Pursuant to Law No 65-00, copyright includes the protection of literary and artistic works, the literary or artistic form of scientific works, including all creations of the mind in the indicated fields, whatever the mode or form of expression, dissemination, reproduction or communication, or gender, merit or destiny. It is important to note that, unlike trademarks, the author’s right is an immanent right that is born with the creation of the original work. The formalities that Law No 65-00 enshrines are to give publicity and great - er legal certainty to the holder of the rights, and the omission does not harm the exercise of their rights. Therefore, the registration of these works is not man - datory. The National Copyright Registry of the National Office for Copyright (ONDA, by its Spanish acronym) is in charge of the registration of the works, performances, productions, including phonograms and broadcasts
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