Crimes against industrial property are regulated in arts. 273 to 277 of the Penal Code and protect certain intangible assets related to technological development or the exercise of business activity.

Crimes against rights over industrial inventions and other intangible assets

These offenses, regulated in Article 273 of the Penal Code, protect patentable inventions (for example, a drug or pharmaceutical product), utility models, industrial designs and chips, provided that they are registered in the corresponding official public registry.

What behaviors are punishable under the Criminal Code? It is punishable with imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years and a fine of 12 to 24 months to the person who, for industrial or commercial purposes, without the consent of the owner of a patent, utility model, industrial model or topography of a semiconductor product and with knowledge of its registration:

1. Manufactures, possesses, uses or offers objects protected by such rights.
2. Uses or offers the use of a process covered by a patent, owns, introduces into the market or uses the product directly obtained by the patented process.

Those acts carried out in the private sphere for non-commercial or experimental purposes, as well as the use and exploitation of inventions that have been developed independently prior to the filing of the corresponding patent application, do not constitute a crime.

Criminal protection of trademark rights

Article 274 of the Criminal Code criminalizes certain conducts affecting trademarks, understood as signs capable of being graphically reproduced and which identify certain products or services, as well as trade names, which serve to identify a company.

On the one hand, with a penalty of 1 to 4 years imprisonment and a fine of 12 to 24 months to the person who, for industrial or commercial purposes, without the consent of the owner of a registered industrial property right and with knowledge of the registration:

1. Manufactures, produces or imports goods that incorporate a distinctive sign identical or confusingly similar to it.
2. It offers, distributes, or markets wholesale, products that incorporate a distinctive sign identical or confusingly similar to it, or stores them for that purpose, provided that they are similar to the products or services protected by the registered industrial property right.

On the other hand, a penalty of 6 months to 3 years imprisonment is imposed on the person who, for industrial or commercial purposes, without the consent of the owner of a registered industrial property right and with knowledge of such registration, offers, distributes or markets at retail, or provides services or develops activities, which incorporate a distinctive sign identical or confusingly similar to the former, when it concerns the same or similar products, services or activities. Likewise, the reproduction or imitation of a distinctive sign identical or confusingly similar to such sign to commit any of the previously described crimes is also punishable.

It is punishable with a lesser penalty, imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years, the itinerant or occasional sale of the products indicated above. In addition, in any case, the judge may impose a fine of 1 to 6 months or community service of 31 to 60 days.

Infringement of plant variety rights

Finally, a penalty of 1 to 3 years’ imprisonment is imposed on any person who, for agricultural or commercial purposes, without the consent of the holder of a plant variety right and with knowledge of its registration, produces, reproduces, markets or possesses for such purposes, plant propagating material of a protected plant variety (art. 274.4 of the Penal Code). Also punishable is the person who performs such acts by using, under the denomination of a protected plant variety, plant propagating material that does not belong to that variety.

Offense against protected appellations of origin and geographical indications

For its part, art. 275 punishes, with a prison sentence of 1 to 3 years, the person who, intentionally and without being authorized, uses in the course of trade a designation of origin or a geographical indication representative of a given quality, with knowledge of this protection. For example, this crime is committed by the owner of a winery who sells wine as if it were from a certain appellation of origin, using falsified certification labels, being aware that the product he sells does not comply with the necessary conditions to belong to such appellation of origin.

Aggravated modalities

Pursuant to Article 276 of the Criminal Code, a prison sentence of 2 to 6 years, a fine of 18 to 36 months and special disqualification from practicing the profession related to the crime committed for a period of 2 to 5 years must be imposed when any of the following circumstances concur in the commission of the crimes described above: if the benefit obtained has special economic transcendence, if the facts are particularly serious, if the perpetrator belongs to an organization dedicated to the commission of this type of crime or if minors are used to commit these crimes.

Disclosure of the contents of a patent application with relevance to national defense.

Finally, Art. 277 of the Criminal Code punishes, with imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years and a fine of 6 to 24 months, the intentional disclosure of an invention that is the subject of a secret patent application, in violation of patent law, provided that it is to the detriment of national defense.

Criminal liability of legal persons

Legal persons may be punished for the commission of a crime against industrial property, in which case the penalty to be imposed shall be:

1. A fine of two to four times the profit obtained, if the crime committed by the natural person is punishable by imprisonment for more than 2 years.
2. In all other cases, the fine is double to triple the amount of the profit obtained.

Likewise, the Judge may impose the penalties of dissolution, suspension of activities, closure of premises, prohibition to carry out activities in the future, special disqualification to obtain subsidies and public aid and judicial intervention.