Nicolás Eguía, an intellectual property attorney with a Master in International Management, recently told GN Noticias in an exclusive interview how Eguía, the leading firm in trademark and patent registration, got its start.
Nicolás visited the studios of Radio del Plata Tucumán 93.9 to explain what registering a trademark and patenting a product involve, and to talk about how the number one firm in the trademark and patent market came to be. The firm has alliances and partners throughout the country, and since last year it has also been present in Salta and Tucumán.
Trademarks and patents
“When we talk about registering a trademark, we mean the commercial signs that identify a product or service: the slogan, the logo, the company name, among others. So this goes beyond the company’s legal name. We are talking about what we will use to identify ourselves to consumers, and when we register the trademark, it is protected so that no one else can sell products and services under the same name,” Nicolás Eguía said in an interview with GN Noticias.
As for patents, attorney N. Eguía explained that they involve the protection of inventions. “When a company develops a technology that is unique in the world and gives it a competitive advantage, and it wants to protect it, that invention is patented. That way, the State grants it a monopoly and no one else can do the same.”
“This is not something that is taught at universities. Business owners are not told why it is important to invest in patents. Registering a trademark, on the other hand, is something we have internalized much more, and Argentina is an exemplary country in this respect,” Eguía said.
The firm’s history
Nicolás explained that Eguía’s origins go back to his great-grandfather, who was the first to set up a law and accounting firm devoted to intellectual property outside Buenos Aires, after seeing that in his native Córdoba and in other provinces such as Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, trademark and patent registration was being neglected.
“My great-grandfather began offering these services in a rudimentary way, as any company does when it starts out. Then, when my grandfather joined his father in the business, they began bringing in a team of attorneys, technical experts, and engineers, building a broader practice that over the years became what we are today,” he recalled.
“We are headquartered in Córdoba, but we have offices in Buenos Aires, Rosario, Tucumán, and Salta. And today we handle 43,000 trademarks nationwide, many of them belonging to companies that have offices abroad and export services and products,” he stressed on Radio del Plata Tucumán 93.9.
Future plans of the leader in trademark and patent registration
In the short term, the firm plans to open commercial offices in Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, and Brazil.
“We are the leading firm in this field, and honestly it makes us very proud professionally, because it means many years of working with clients who keep choosing us and keep trusting us with something as important as their brand,” Nicolás said.
“When you have a business idea, something you want to do, the trade name of the product is the crystallization of that whole dream,” Eguía said, referring to the importance of managing companies’ trademarks.
He also pointed out that the activity has been growing recently.
“This year we are seeing an impressive number of trademark applications being filed, and I can also tell you that we are seeing a great many foreign trademarks entering the country. We may not see them for another month or two, because they start by registering their trademarks and setting up their companies, and then, as if by magic, a store of some foreign clothing brand appears.” With these words, Nicolás Eguía wrapped up the interview with GN Noticias.
