In November 2010, the Contentious Administrative Court (CAC) reversed a decision that was issued by the DNPI’s trademark arm and dismissed a trademark application for ‘RBS The Royal Bank of Scotland’.
To be, or not to be, a bank
The National Directorate of Industrial Property (DNPI) refused the registration because it contained the term ‘bank’ and the applicant, The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was not authorised to operate as a financial agent. According to Article 3 of law Nº 15.322, to operate as a financial agent in Uruguay a company must first obtain authorisation to do so from the Uruguayan Central Bank.
DNPI argued that RBS’s trademark application was forbidden under the rules of unfair competition in the Paris Convention. An article of this convention says that the following acts should be forbidden:
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uruguay, CAC, dnpi, rbs
