Venezuela – Reestablishing of official fees

We have been advised that the Venezuelan National patent office has issued a communication dated February 1st , 2019 informing that venezuelan cryptocurrency called “Petro” would be adopted as payment system of Official fees. The exchange would be USD 60 per Petro.

Beyond establishing the payment of pending formalities that were suspended since February 2nd 2018, we consider that this system may derive to negative financial and legal consecuences to the applicants since the Government of the United States has explicitly forbidden any transaction related to Petro.

Although this prohibition falls only for US legal entities and US citizens, we consider that the risks of these payments may be extended to the rest of the applicants; thus, we are analyzing the situation in order to ascertain the legal consecuences of payments using Petro.

Finally, please note that the National Office has provided a 60 day period from February 1st 2019 for payment of fees for granted rights in patent and trademarks published within the Official Bulletin No. 580 dated December 26, 2017 and Official Bulletin No. 590 dated December 20, 2018; this deadline (which expires on May 3, 2019) can be extended.

Once we evaluate this uncertain situation in Venezuela , we will inform you accordingly providing further information. Notwithstanding, should you wish us to study your case individually, please contact us.