(WIPO code: GT) (latest review March 2024)

by IBERIAN IP, Madrid, Spain

General Information

Area

108,890 sq. km.

Population

17,980,803 (2023).

Capital

Guatemala City with 3.095 million inhabitants (2023).

Language

Spanish.

Currency

Quetzal.

Most important agricultural, mineral, and industrial products

Coffee, sugar, food products and chemical products, chicle (raw material for chewing gum), meat, citronella oil and other essential oils, timber, honey, fish and crustaceans, tobacco, cocoa, manufacture of clothing, textiles, vegetables, flowers, fruits and preserved products.
Of the total export products, 50% represents non-traditional products (agriculture).
Mineral resources are abundant but undeveloped and include gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, iron, antimony and coal. Coffee, timber, cotton, bananas, maize, tobacco and cattle-raising are important industries.

General Remarks

The basic structure of the law has remained intact, however, through different free trade agreements, Guatemala has incorporated a few rules that are applied for the parties involved in such agreements. Free Trade Agreements have been signed, among others, with: China (Taiwan) (March 6, 2006), the Dominican Republic and the Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica (March 10, 2005), Colombia (November 12, 2009), Chile (March 23, 2010), Panama (June 20, 2009), Peru (2013), and the Central American countries with Mexico (June 2013). Guatemala has also concluded negotiation of the ADA Association Agreement with the European Union (December 2013). Generally, all agreements include IP regulations and domain names. Guatemala has also recently regulated the clinical trials for drug products. Another related issue that can be pointed out is the Custom Unification for the Central American countries as a requirement to negotiate the mentioned free trade agreements. Guatemala will adopt, among other legal instruments, the Madrid Protocol and the Hague Convention for Drawings and Industrial Models. In 2014, the Congress approved the Law on Protection of Plant Varieties (Ley de Protección de Obtenciones Vegetales), also called “Ley Monsanto”, which relates to plant varieties and has a strict relationship with the treaty known as UPOV, in which the rights granted to the inventor will be as a breeder.