El Salvador will use HDB from December 2022

As of December the 12th of this year, the National Registration Center from El Salvador (NRC) will implement in its daily operations the list of terms of the harmonized database of goods and services (HDB) in TMclass (https://www.tmdn.org/#/tools/1819832). Aimed at the service of users, this friendly tool gives brands and intellectual property experts the possibility of protecting their products and/or services.

The incorporation of the NRC increases the number of IP offices to 92 (both national and local). Organizations such as ARIPO, OAPI, WIPO and EUIPO, among others, are a fundamental part of this elite group. With El Salvador, there are already 28 offices that use this tool outside the European Union.

Within the platform, in the Trademarks section, you can access online queries such as: trademark applications and registrations, check if an idea is available or find out if a certain trademark has changed status within 76 different countries. All this, thanks to an instrument called TMview (https://www.tmdn.org/#/tools/1820385). Also, TMclass offers the opportunity to search and translate goods and services in any of the 44 available languages, as well as verify the correct classification of terms according to the Nice classification.

There are several types of tools within the database (Trademarks, Designs and Models, Respect for IP Rights, Empowering the network, Geographical Indications, Quality and Standards) available to the public and each of them has different specialized instruments.

As a success story, in the Drawings and Models section, designers can find two powerful tools; DESIGNview (https://www.tmdn.org/#/tools/1819847) and DESINGclass (https://www.tmdn.org/#/tools/1819850). These offer users, within their Harmonized Database (https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/harmonised-database), the most appropriate standards and regulations for the products they wish to protect. These also were created as a result of the convergence project on the harmonization of product indications of the Convergence Program (PC7).

The adoption of HDB by NRC is a successful result of the IP Key Latin America program, directed by the European Commission, and implemented by the EUIPO itself. For more information, you can consult the following links: www.euipn.org, http://euipo.europa.eu/ec2 and https://ipkey.eu/en/latin-america.