Costa Rica new “Luxury Home” Tax. All home owners in Costa Rica are trying to understand how this new tax works and whether they should file a return and pay.
The Director of the National Registry´s Intelectual Property branch has issued, as a result of a growing number of inquieries, the following information regarding trademark searches and trade names, in a recent release:
New operational proceedings for the TRA (Administrative Court)
The Executive Branch has recently prommulgated a new set of regulations that will have jurisdiction over the Administrative Court (Tribunal Registral Administrativo) that oversees all matters regarding the Costa Rican National Registry.
The Comptroller’s Office (Contraloria General de la Republica) issued Audit Report No. DFOE-SM-14-2008 dated 6 October 2008 through which it is ordered to the Municipality of Osa to cancel concessions granted in the Punta Dominical area, as well as to cancel the Development Plan for this region, as the approval process in 2000-2003 by the Municipality, the ICT (Board of Tourism) and the INVU (National Institute of Housing and Urban Development) did not follow the environmental regulations in effect at that time, nor did it consider the presence of forest areas and the need for the Ministry of Environment to certify these areas.
IP Costa Rica
Recent amendments to the Trademark and Patent Laws of Costa Rica may eliminate the need to legalize powers of attorney. New wording in both laws seem to eliminate the need to take powers of attorney for trademark and patent matters through the local Costa Rican Consular Office. Authorities have not yet confirmed this is the case, but chances are high that in the future a simple notarization will suffice.
Changes to CR IP Laws
Significant changes to the IP laws of Costa Rica went into effect on April 28, 2008. These changes were enacted mostly to make Costa Rica compliant with CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement), of which Costa Rica was the last member state to ratify such Agreement.
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