VENEZUELA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Dana Bentata, Anette Beyer and Biddy Fraga Bentata, Bentata Abogados
Bentata Abogados Av. Orinoco con Calle Mucuchíes Torre Nórdic, PH Las Mercedes Caracas Venezuela Tel: +58 212 600 7400 Email: lawyers@bentata.com Web: www.bentata.com
Introduction Trade mark activity has risen steadily in Venezuela since 2020, with 2025 marking five-year highs in both applications and registrations. This positive trajectory has persisted notwithstanding a complex political and economic environment and is expected to continue in the near term. That momentum has generated a grow- ing body of administrative jurisprudence that is sharp- ening the contours of trade mark law and practice, with cancellation proceedings emerging as a particu- larly active area in 2025 and into the first half of 2026. Several factors appear to be converging to drive this trend in cancellation proceedings. The legal frame- work does not impose reporting obligations on trade mark owners to demonstrate use of their marks, nor is there an administrative mechanism to verify contin- ued and genuine use. As a result, cancellation actions brought by third parties have become the only prac- tical means of removing unused registrations from the register, apart from voluntary cancellations by the trade mark owner. Functionally, enforcement is left to competitors and other interested parties. Additionally, the prolonged economic crisis has driv- en foreign companies to retreat from the local market over the past two decades, leaving many international marks either registered but commercially inactive or entirely unregistered. In parallel, the country’s sus- tained macroeconomic instability, marked by hyper- inflation, currency depreciation and broader market dislocation, has fuelled a surge in necessity-driven entrepreneurship as Venezuelans have increasingly turned to self-employment and small business activity. The convergence of reduced international commercial
presence and an expanding informal economy has in turn contributed to an entrenched counterfeit market. The result is a market in which dormant registrations have become targets for third parties looking to capi- talise on the absence of commercial activity. A grow- ing number of domestic applicants and opportunistic foreign actors are actively seeking to secure rights to marks that replicate or approximate well-known international brands, turning the legal vulnerability of non-use into a registration strategy. The uptick in cancellation activity has prompted the Autonomous Service of Industrial Property ( Servicio Autónomo de Propiedad Industrial , the “IP Office”) to issue more administrative decisions concerning what constitutes genuine use of a trade mark in Ven- ezuela. This chapter of the guide examines the key legal developments arising from this period of height- ened activity, including the criteria for genuine use and questions surrounding permissible variant use of registered marks in cancellation proceedings. It also considers the implications for portfolio management in a market gradually reopening to international com- merce amid the recent easing of certain sanctions and signs of renewed foreign commercial interest. The Legal Framework: Venezuela’s Strict Cancellation Regime Article 36 (d) of the Industrial Property Law of 1955 ( Ley de Propiedad Industrial , the “LPI”) provides the statutory basis for non-use cancellation proceedings, establishing that a trade mark registration may be challenged where the mark has not been used com- mercially in Venezuela for an uninterrupted period of
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