The trademark is usually the most valuable and least protected asset of a Brazilian business. Entrepreneurs invest years building reputation around a name, print packaging, register domains, open social media profiles and only discover that the name legally belongs to someone else when they receive an extrajudicial notification or when e-commerce platforms take down their ads.
In Brazil, who grants exclusivity over a commercial name is not the Board of Trade, not the domain registration and not the time of use in the market. This function is exercised by INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property), a federal autarchy linked to the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, which operates based on the Industrial Property Law (Law No. 9.279/1996).
According to André de Almeida, partner and consultant in intellectual property at Almeida & Barbosa, the most common error is not the entrepreneur registering incorrectly, but rather believing they have already registered their trademark when, in fact, they have not. The article also addresses how the registration process works, the costs involved and the changes expected for 2026.
