Industrial, intellectual property rights and new technologies by Morera and Morera Law Firm Costa Rica

As consequence of the amendments made to Costa Rican legislation in recent years to reinforce protection of Intellectual Property, patents of invention have become a key juridical instrument, allowing its owners and companies to prevent third parties from manufacturing, utilizing, importing, offering for sale or selling a protected invention. Aware of this new reality and as a result of the joint labor of technicians and specialized attorneys, the Firm offers counseling in the preparation of national patent applications, preparation of PCT applications, state of the art search reports, license, assignment and transfer contract preparation, counseling for patent portfolio handling, as well as professional guidance of related litigations, at administrative and judicial headquarters.

Through its specialized technical staff, our Law Firm offers at the disposition of its clients Evaluation of the State of Art as an essential tool that allows the interested party to have an international view as to how far the technology developed has advanced in a certain area of interest. Prior Art Searches and Evaluations is an essential element during the stage prior to corporate decision making destined to the development of a certain product or procedure. It allows for the evaluation of possibilities of free technology availability in Costa Rica, which means considerable savings in sums destined for research and development, as well as the possibility of adopting the mentioned technological applications in productive improvement and implementation.

During the past years, biotechnology has been one of the most dynamic fields of research in Costa Rica, with important applications in food and therapeutic sectors, resulting in positive expectations in regards to protection of results and related knowledge. Since it includes a diverse variety of intangible assets, the Firm offers counseling and diagnosis services regarding protection strategies, evaluations by State of the Art for biotechnological products and developments and the preparation of related contracts and agreements.

Even though an adequate legal and institutional development does not exist for the protection of plant varieties in Costa Rica, the main specialties of the Firm converge in this specific field to offer top quality, integral and highly specialized services that include agrarian and environmental aspects, along with counseling on the protection of new varieties, improvement implementation, know/how protection and protection of research companies and development institutions, as well as advice in topics related to contracting and licensing.

The new commerce demands have clarified that the mission of an entrepreneur must not be limited to organization and production. His/her products and services, as well as the image of his company should be easily distinguished to be able to successfully compete in the market. For this purpose, the Firm offers background searching services, filing registry applications, as well as guidance and professional representation in the administrative and judicial dependencies in matters of challenges and appeals. Depending on the needs and requirements of clients, the Firm additionally provides advisory services regarding strategy definition for protection of distinctive signs to the company insider, handling of corporate trademarks portfolios, as well as preparation and specialized legal assistance in matters related to national and international contracts.

Likewise, we offer specialized advisory services for registry applications for Community Trademarks before the Office of Administration of the Interior Market (OAMI).

All companies have technical, industrial or commercial information that would like to keep under control and exclusively in their possession. Much of this information is the result of many years of work, research and experience that have allowed each company to create its own formulae, procedures and working systems to transform them into real competitive advantages. In this regard, the role of the Firm is directed towards providing advice for an adequate confidentiality policy and industrial secrets, along with the deposit of support for non-disclosed information before the corresponding registration authority.

To protect the authorship of your work, as well as to change it into a negotiable asset with market value, authors, interpreters or performers must adequately protect their work from being copied, piracy and from any intention of unlawful reproduction or infringement. Additional to the deposit and registry services for custody of the work, the Firm offers the possibility of advice and preparation of various agreements such as editing, reproduction, production of an audiovisual, musical and radio pieces, as well as license, distribution and merchandising agreements.

Domain Names are the essential tools to ensure distinctiveness, presence and advertising dissemination on the internet. To ensure such action, the Firm includes within its services, professional advisory prior to registration of the domain names, assignment agreements, recovery actions and defense against cyber-occupation and against other domain names or conflictive distinctive signs.

New expansion technology and expansion of electronic commerce, have led way to the appearance of new products and services for which the Law Firm has arranged specialized legal treatment and hiring figures adequate for each of the diverse agreements required. Services include consultancy and preparation of contracts for services rendered on-line, shrink wrap and click wrap agreements for development of web pages, hosting, provision of contents, maintenance of new versions, transfer of technology, technical support and maintenance, and, among others, software agreements and hardware licenses.

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Aside from being chosen by several transnational companies engaged in software development and manufacture and development of computer components during the last few years, Costa Rica has been the scenario for the consolidation and positioning of several national companies in the local, regional and global markets. An essential part of considering those products and developments a real competitive advantage consists in granting them an adequate level of protection. In accordance with this trend, the Law Firm offers diagnostic services for better protection, evaluation of the Prior Art , consultancy in preparation and negotiation of license and software assignment agreements, distribution, maintenance and technical support agreements, among others.

Advertising as a means of commercial communication, is a phenomenon that requires immediate legal responses. The Law Firm provides services in legal counseling in matters of contracting for advertising agencies, creation agreements and advertising diffusion, sponsoring and advertising agreements in the internet. Actions against misleading advertising, unlawful advertising and criminal related actions with illicit advertising as also services available for which our Office is in full capacity of exercising its representation and judicial guidance.