Question 1

Can I register any name?

Accepted Answer

No. Some signs cannot be registered by law, and others clash with earlier trademarks owned by third parties. Checking that before filing is exactly what the viability consultation is for.

Question 2

Does artificial intelligence decide whether my trademark is registrable?

Accepted Answer

No. The tool cross-checks WIPO’s worldwide database and organizes the findings under Andean Decision 486, which is search work. The conclusion is signed by a lawyer.

Question 3

What are these classes about?

Accepted Answer

Trademarks are registered for specific goods or services, grouped into classes. Which ones to file in first is a strategic decision, and it depends on what you do today and what you plan to do next.

Question 4

How long does the process take?

Accepted Answer

Timelines are set by the SIC and are not up to us. The estimated term is published on the service card, in the services section of this same page.

Question 5

Is what you see inside the device a real case?

Accepted Answer

No. It is a demo with stand-in data: the company, the trademark “Usertaste01”, the email, and the numbers on screen are there so you can walk the whole flow without signing up and without paying. Nothing you touch there creates a case file or sends anything to the SIC. What is real is the journey: the steps, their order, and who takes part in each one are the ones the service uses.

Question 6

What happens when you start the viability check?

Accepted Answer

A short form opens inside the same device: the name you want to protect, what type of sign it is, and what you sell, in your own words. With that, the tool cross-checks WIPO’s database and organizes what it finds under Decision 486. You never leave this page, and the first step is only the form: payment comes later, in its own step.

Question 7

What are WIPO and Decision 486?

Accepted Answer

WIPO is the World Intellectual Property Organization, and its database brings together trademarks registered and applied for in many countries: it is where you look to see whether someone already uses something close to yours. Andean Decision 486 is the industrial-property rule in force in Colombia, and it is the one that says what can be registered and when two signs are too much alike. The search provides the findings; Decision 486 is the criterion they are read with.

Question 8

How do you know what type of sign your trademark is?

Accepted Answer

It depends on what you want to protect. If it is the words — the name itself, independent of any typeface — it is a word mark; if it is only a drawing or a symbol, figurative; if the name and the graphic always travel together, combined; and if what sets it apart is the shape of the product or its packaging, three-dimensional, which is the “3D” box. Each option protects different things, so the choice is confirmed with the lawyer before filing.

Question 9

Who decides the class shown on screen?

Accepted Answer

The tool proposes it from what you describe selling, which is why you see it flagged on screen as an AI assignment. The lawyer is the one who confirms it before filing: what ends up protected depends on the class, and that decision is not left to a model.

Question 10

What do you get once the payment for the diagnostic is confirmed?

Accepted Answer

The screen confirms the payment and sums up what was recorded: the trademark, the type of sign, the class, and the payment reference. The viability report goes to the email registered with the payment — the confirmation screen shows you which one. That reference is ours — it belongs to the payment — and it is not a case-file number with the SIC: the diagnostic files nothing.

Question 11

Is the viability diagnostic already the filing with the SIC?

Accepted Answer

No. The diagnostic is a prior study: it looks at how exposed your trademark is before you spend on filing it. Registering it with the SIC is a separate service, with its own case file, a signed power of attorney, and a lawyer’s review before anything is submitted. The reference you see on the confirmation is ours — it belongs to the payment for the diagnostic — and it is not a SIC case-file number.

Question 12

What is the advanced search and how does it differ from the first form?

Accepted Answer

The first step is what you type into the form: your trademark, the type of sign, and what you sell. The advanced search is the work done with that — cross-checking WIPO’s database not only for an identical name, but for the ones that sound or are spelled alike within the classes that matter to you. That is why it is a separate step, and it starts once the diagnostic is paid for.

Question 13

What does that exposure percentage measure?

Accepted Answer

It is an overall reading of what the search turned up: which similar signs appeared and how close they are to your trademark and to what you sell. It tells you how much work lies ahead; it does not pass or fail anything, and there is no figure above or below which something becomes allowed. A lawyer is the one who interprets the result and signs it.

Question 14

What is an opposition?

Accepted Answer

When a trademark application is published, a third party who believes it is too close to their own can file a written objection asking that it not be granted: that is an opposition. It is decided by the SIC, not by whoever files it. That is why the service watches the Industrial Property Gazette and lets you know if something that touches your filing shows up.

Question 15

Why does the search return trademarks spelled differently from yours?

Accepted Answer

Because the similarity that matters is not only in the letters. Two trademarks can be spelled differently and sound almost the same out loud, and that is enough for someone to mix them up — which is exactly what the rule looks at. That is why the list includes phonetic results and grades how close they are: they are the ones an examiner or a third party could point to.

Question 16

What does it mean that the results come from the Andean Community?

Accepted Answer

It is the territory that part of the search looks at: Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, the countries that share Decision 486. It is narrowed that way because those are the registrations a Colombian examiner and rights holders in the region have closest at hand to object with. It is the scope of the search, not of any protection: where a trademark ends up protected depends on where it is registered, and that is settled at filing.

Question 17

What does the full report include, and why is part of it locked?

Accepted Answer

The part behind the lock is the lawyer’s recommendation: what is worth filing and how to present it to lower the risk of someone opposing it, signed by the firm’s lead attorney. It is not hidden as a design trick and the tool does not write it — it is professional judgment, and that is why it comes with the full report, which is a separate service from the diagnostic. What each one costs is in the services section of this same page.

Question 18

Who decides whether the MIPYME scale applies?

Accepted Answer

It is not a discount of ours: they are two different fee scales set by the SIC, and the calculator shows them side by side so you can follow the breakdown. Which one applies depends on how the company is classified, not on what gets ticked on screen; that is why the scale is confirmed with the lawyer before filing, along with the rest of the case file.

Question 19

What is the SIC and what does it do with your trademark application?

Accepted Answer

It is the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce, the authority that keeps Colombia’s trademark register. It receives the application, charges the official fee, checks whether the sign can be registered, publishes it so a third party can oppose, and in the end grants or refuses the registration. We prepare and submit the case file; it is the one that decides.

Question 20

What does “filing” a trademark mean?

Accepted Answer

Filing means formally submitting the application to the SIC so that it gets a date and a number: from that moment there is a case file and the process starts running. Everything before that — the diagnostic, the calculator, the documents — is preparation. That is why the site keeps saying “before filing”: it is the line between what can still be adjusted and what is already in the office’s hands.

Question 21

What happens when you start the official registration?

Accepted Answer

The case file opens, and with it the three steps of the registration: uploading the documents and signing the power of attorney, reviewing the fee statement and paying, and waiting for the lawyer’s review before the robot files. Whatever you already typed in the diagnostic arrives pre-filled, so the first step starts half done rather than blank.

Question 22

What happens in the first trademark-strategy session?

Accepted Answer

It is a video call with the firm’s lead attorney, not with a salesperson. You go over the trademark portfolio you already have, sort out what is worth protecting first, and you leave with a class-by-class filing plan. If you then want to register something from that plan, it goes through the registration service, with its own case file.

Question 23

What are you authorizing when you sign the power of attorney?

Accepted Answer

A special power of attorney lets the lawyer carry out that specific filing on your behalf before the SIC: submitting the application, responding to what the office asks for, and receiving its notices. It is tied to that matter alone: it gives no access to your money and does not cover other procedures. The full text is read before signing — what appears blurred behind the box in the demo is only a sample, and any stroke you draw there stays in your browser.

Question 24

Why might a logo in JPG not work?

Accepted Answer

Because what gets registered is the representation of the sign, and that image has to look clean and cut out over any background. A JPG does not keep transparency: it drags along a background rectangle that is not part of your trademark, and when it is enlarged the dirty edges of compression show up. That is why the system flags that file: the SIC may object to the representation of the sign. An original with a transparent background avoids that risk.

Question 25

What is the Chamber of Commerce certificate and where do you get it?

Accepted Answer

It is the document a company uses to prove that it exists and who can sign on its behalf. It is issued by the Chamber of Commerce where the company is registered, and you download it from their website, almost always as a PDF. If you are registering the trademark in your own name, as an individual, you do not need it: your ID document is enough there.

Question 26

Which documents should you have at hand for the registration?

Accepted Answer

Three things: the owner’s ID document and RUT, the logo in good quality if your trademark has a graphic part, and the Chamber of Commerce certificate when the applicant is a company. On top of that, you sign the power of attorney that lets the lawyer submit the filing. If something is missing you can still start: nothing is filed until the case file is complete and reviewed.

Question 27

What is the RUT and why is it asked for in the case file?

Accepted Answer

The RUT is Colombia’s Single Tax Registry, the document the tax authority uses to identify a person or a company. In the case file it does two things: it identifies the owner with the same number they already use before the State, and it lets the invoice for the process be issued to the right name. It is not requested to review your taxes; what each piece of data is used for is set out in the data-processing policy.

Question 28

Which owner details does the case file ask for, and why?

Accepted Answer

The name or company name, the ID or tax number, an address, and a contact phone. It is not extra paperwork: the application is filed in someone’s name, and those details are what ends up in the register as the trademark’s owner and what the office uses to send notices. That is why they are worth checking before signing the power of attorney, even when they arrive pre-filled from the previous step.

Question 29

Why can you sign either by drawing or by typing your name?

Accepted Answer

Because a box you draw in with your finger cannot be used with a keyboard, and someone navigating that way has to be able to sign too: typing the full name is the equivalent route. In the demo both are only the surface — the stroke stays in your browser, it is not sent anywhere, and it does not produce a valid power of attorney. The real one is issued inside the process, read in full before signing, and reviewed by the lawyer.

Question 30

What happens if a document is missing from the case file?

Accepted Answer

You are asked for it before filing, not after. The case file goes through the Control Desk and a lawyer checks that it is complete; if something is missing or unusable — a logo that cannot be used, an expired certificate — you are told and it gets fixed. That the demo lets you move on with an empty box is a demo thing: what does not happen is an incomplete case file reaching the SIC.

Question 31

What do you see when you open the detail of a warning?

Accepted Answer

Three things, always in the same order: what happened in plain words, what you can do now, and what happens to your money. Below that comes the technical trace, which is the bit support needs if you have to write in. It is laid out that way on purpose — when something goes wrong, the error code is not the first thing you want to know.

Question 32

What is the case-file seal and what is it for?

Accepted Answer

It is a fingerprint of your case file’s contents, computed with SHA-256. The robot compares it right before filing and refuses to send if anything changed after the lawyer approved the file, or if that same fingerprint was already filed with the SIC. It is there for one thing only: so that nothing is filed twice, and nothing is filed in a version other than the one that was reviewed.

Question 33

Why does the filing sit and wait instead of going out at once?

Accepted Answer

Because between your case file and the SIC there is a lawyer, and that wait is them. They check the coverage, the documents, and the power of attorney before the robot sends anything; until they approve it, the file stays at the Control Desk and the status says so on screen. It is the part of the process that is deliberately not automated: fixing a badly filed application is far more work than reviewing it beforehand.

Question 34

Why is there an English code next to your case status?

Accepted Answer

Because it is the same name that status has internally, in the system that moves the process and in the database. It is shown next to the readable label so that, if you write or call, you and whoever helps you are talking about exactly the same point in the process. It is not a missed translation: statuses are deliberately left untranslated.

Question 35

Where do you follow your case after paying?

Accepted Answer

In two places that tell the same story from different angles: the shared folder, where the case file’s documents are stored as they appear, and the tracker, which shows which milestone the process is at. You do not have to ask in order to find out — when something moves, the document and the notice reach you.

Question 36

What is the case-file vault and why is it read-only?

Accepted Answer

It is a folder shared with you where everything about the process is kept, sorted by stage: the initial documents, the filing, and the follow-up afterwards. It is read-only because its contents have to match what was reviewed and submitted: if anyone could change a file there, it would stop being a faithful copy of the case file. To add something new, it is requested through the same channel we use to notify you.

Question 37

Which number goes into the tracker, and what does the search return?

Accepted Answer

The case-file number is the one the SIC assigns once the application has been filed; before that, what exists is an internal reference of ours — useful for talking to you, but not for looking anything up with the office. The tracker returns which milestone the process is at; the documents are in your shared folder. In the demo it only answers for its sample case files: tracking a real one starts when we file it.

Question 38

What is the Control Desk?

Accepted Answer

It is the point every case file goes through before it is filed: a senior lawyer checks the coverage, the documents, and the power of attorney, and decides whether the process moves on or comes back to be corrected. The robot touches nothing that has not been approved there. It is the in-house name for the human review the site promises everywhere.

Question 39

What is SIPI?

Accepted Answer

It is the SIC’s online system where industrial-property filings are submitted and looked up. That is where the robot files, where the fee receipt comes from, and where the case file is checked afterwards for movement. When the site says a filing went through, it means it went through there.

Question 40

What is the Industrial Property Gazette?

Accepted Answer

It is the official publication where the SIC makes trademark applications public. Publishing is a required step: it exists so that anyone who believes a new trademark clashes with theirs finds out and can oppose it. That is why following a case file means watching the Gazette and not just the status.

Question 41

How do you find out that something moved in your case?

Accepted Answer

You do not have to keep watching. An automatic check queries the SIC’s system every night, and when a new milestone or an opposition shows up, the document lands in your folder and the notice reaches you by email. The tracker is there for when you want to look; the notice arrives whether you look or not.

Question 42

What does it mean for a case to move to “requirement”?

Accepted Answer

That the SIC has asked for something before going on: it can be a clarification about the application, or notice of an opposition filed by a third party. The case does not fall apart, it is diverted — it steps off the straight path and goes through that stage. Meanwhile the follow-up works the same: if it shows up, you see it in the tracker and we tell you.

Question 43

What happens when the SIC grants the registration?

Accepted Answer

It is the last milestone of the journey: if nobody opposed and the SIC grants it, it issues the registration certificate, and that document lands in your folder like any other in the case file. From then on the trademark is yours as a right, with the term and scope stated on the certificate itself.

Question 44

Why does the demo also let you see a returned case file?

Accepted Answer

Because a returned case file is not a page error: it is a state of the process, and it is proof that the human review does something. The Control Desk exists precisely to stop what should not be filed; if you never saw a stopped case, that review would be decoration. That is why the tracker shows both: the one moving forward and the one that came back.

Classify first, sign afterwards

From the list to the drafted document

Step 1 of 3. Inventory of what is critical

Step 2 of 3. Classification by level

Step 3 of 3. Drafting and review

The advisory work, from the inside

What the service includes

What you get

How far this service goes

What the service costs

How long it takes, and what is not up to us

What people ask us most

Before the next hire, put it in order

Shall we talk?

Classify first, sign afterwards

From the list to the drafted document

Step 1 of 3. Inventory of what is critical

Step 2 of 3. Classification by level

Step 3 of 3. Drafting and review

The advisory work, from the inside

What the service includes

What you get

How far this service goes

What the service costs

How long it takes, and what is not up to us

What people ask us most

Before the next hire, put it in order

Shall we talk?

What exactly do you do?+–

Does this replace a lawyer?+–

Do I have to come to an office?+–

Where do I start?+–

Can I register any name?+–

Does artificial intelligence decide whether my trademark is registrable?+–

What are these classes about?+–

How long does the process take?+–

Is what you see inside the device a real case?+–

What happens when you start the viability check?+–

What are WIPO and Decision 486?+–

How do you know what type of sign your trademark is?+–

Who decides the class shown on screen?+–

What do you get once the payment for the diagnostic is confirmed?+–

Is the viability diagnostic already the filing with the SIC?+–

What is the advanced search and how does it differ from the first form?+–

What does that exposure percentage measure?+–

What is an opposition?+–

Why does the search return trademarks spelled differently from yours?+–

What does it mean that the results come from the Andean Community?+–

What does the full report include, and why is part of it locked?+–

Who decides whether the MIPYME scale applies?+–

What is the SIC and what does it do with your trademark application?+–

What does “filing” a trademark mean?+–

What happens when you start the official registration?+–

What happens in the first trademark-strategy session?+–

What are you authorizing when you sign the power of attorney?+–

Why might a logo in JPG not work?+–

What is the Chamber of Commerce certificate and where do you get it?+–

Which documents should you have at hand for the registration?+–

What is the RUT and why is it asked for in the case file?+–

Which owner details does the case file ask for, and why?+–

Why can you sign either by drawing or by typing your name?+–

What happens if a document is missing from the case file?+–

What do you see when you open the detail of a warning?+–

What is the case-file seal and what is it for?+–

Why does the filing sit and wait instead of going out at once?+–

Why is there an English code next to your case status?+–

Where do you follow your case after paying?+–

What is the case-file vault and why is it read-only?+–

Which number goes into the tracker, and what does the search return?+–

What is the Control Desk?+–

What is SIPI?+–

What is the Industrial Property Gazette?+–

How do you find out that something moved in your case?+–

What does it mean for a case to move to “requirement”?+–

What happens when the SIC grants the registration?+–

Why does the demo also let you see a returned case file?+–