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Table 3.10 Overview of intellectual property rights in Chile, 2014
Patents
- Main legislation: Industrial Property Law No. 19.039 (revised, coordinated and consolidated text in DFL No. 3 of 2006) and its implementing Regulations (Decree No. 236 of 2005), amended by Decree No. 29 of 2012; Law No. 19.996 of 2005; Law No. 20.160 of 2007; and Law No. 20.569 of 2012.
- Area covered: Any product or process that is new, involves an inventive step and is capable of industrial application.
Compulsory licences may be granted to remedy anti competitive practices, for reasons of public health, national security, non commercial public use or national emergency; or to work a subsequent patent that cannot be worked without infringing a prior patent.
- Term: 20 years from the filing date. Additional terms of protection are allowed if there has been an unjustified delay in granting the patent or a sanitary permit for a pharmaceutical product.
- Exclusions and limitations: Procedures and materials such as scientific theories, business plans, mathematical, surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic methods; plants and animals (except microorganisms) and essentially biological processes for the production of plants and animals (other than microbiological processes); parts of living beings as encountered in nature and natural biological processes and materials.
Protection is not granted if an invention is contrary to public order, security, morality, the health of persons, animals or plants, or the environment.
(...)

(…) The Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) is the body responsible for sanitary and phytosanitary protection, as well as for renewable natural resources; the SAG is also required to facilitate export and import trade and to supervise the process of certification of export products. The National Forest Corporation (CONAF) is the entity responsible for promoting the sustainable use of the country's forest resources, administering the instruments for the development of forestry and promoting the generation of environmental services. (...)

The Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) is in charge of determining the rules and procedures for import and release of living modified plant organisms, under regulated conditions, whether produced in Chile or abroad and intended for release into the environment. The SAG's regulations in this respect cover both export and safeguard measures for the residue, byproducts and waste. Throughout the whole procedure, the SAG monitors the seed banks in Chile which have living modified plant organisms in order to ensure their full traceability.

In Chile, the release of living modified plant organisms into the environment for propagation is permitted, subject to authorization by the SAG (Agriculture and Livestock Service). An application has to be submitted to the SAG for the import of transgenic seeds. This is given after a risk assessment and following a favourable report from the competent authority in the country of origin stating that release into the environment in that country had had no negative effects. For import to be authorized, there must be a SAG authorized collection point where the transgenic material can be stored. Likewise, living modified plant organisms developed in Chile may be released into the environment, subject to authorization by the SAG, if a risk assessment has been conducted and it has been found that the tests carried out prior to its release into the environment had no negative effects. Authorizations to import and release living modified plant organisms, whether imported or developed in Chile, are issued on a case by case basis depending on the species and the genetic modification incorporated.

Persons interested in engaging in industrial fishing within the framework of the general access regime must, for each vessel, request a fishing authorization from the Undersecretariat of Fishing and Aquaculture. The fishing boats must be registered in Chile, in accordance with the provisions of the Shipping Law. If the applicant is a natural person, he must be a Chilean or a foreigner with a permanent residence permit, and if the applicant is a legal person, it must be lawfully established in Chile. These authorizations are granted when the following requirements are met: valid evidence of ownership of the vessel for which a fishing authorization is requested; identification of the hydrobiological species it is intended to exploit and the fishing area in which it is proposed to catch fish; identification and characteristics of the vessel to be used; and specification of the fishing method, system or gear to be employed. The application may be rejected on natural resource management grounds.

The Ministry, on the basis of a technical report from the Undersecretariat and the Scientific and Technical Committee, may establish prohibitions or measures for managing hydrobiological resources. These measures include: (a) a biological closed season by species within a particular area for a specific period of time, initially two years, which may be extended in accordance with specified biological indicators; (b) a temporary or permanent ban on the catching of species protected under international agreements to which Chile is party; (...)

(…) The Management Committees determine the range within which the global catch quota can be fixed, previously the responsibility of the National Fisheries Council. Quotas are now established on the basis of purely scientific variables, which mainly take the conservation objective into account, whereas previously other variables were considered. Because of this change, in 2014 the quotas for all fishery resources were reduced on average by 37%.

The Ministry, on the basis of a technical report from the Undersecretariat and the Scientific and Technical Committee, may establish prohibitions or measures for managing hydrobiological resources. These measures include: (...) (c) the establishment of annual catch quotas by species within a specified area or global catch quotas. The global catch quotas may be fixed for periods of up to three years, with the annual catch volume always being established. If the whole of the annual catch is not caught, the remainder cannot be carried over to the following year (Article 3.1).

In fisheries subject to the full exploitation regime annual global catch quotas may be established for each fishery unit. The annual global catch quotas may be distributed over two or more periods of the year and may not be amended, unless there is new scientific data to justify the change. Holders of industrial fishing authorizations, in full exploitation fisheries in which a global catch quota has been established, are granted Class A transferable fishing licences or transferable individual quotas (CIT), which replaced tradable fishing licences (LTP). Whereas the LTPs did not expire, the Class A licences are valid for 20 years, renewable, and indicate the percentage of the global quota allocated to industrial fishing. This percentage is progressively decreasing, so as to transfer fishing rights to other holders, but never by more than 15% of the original share. According to the law, if a fishery is at a level equal to or greater than 90% of its maximum sustainable yield, 5% of the industrial fraction quota will be auctioned off, when it reaches 95% another 5% will be auctioned off, and when it reaches 100% an additional 5%. This system enables other operators to obtain access to fishery resources. Holders who obtain authorization to exploit the fishery resource through auctions obtain a Type B transferable licence valid for 20 years, at the end of which they are re auctioned. So far, no auction has been organized, since there is still no regulatory framework and the maximum sustainable yields have not been determined.

Chile hopes that the negotiations subsequent to the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference held in Bali (Indonesia) in December 2013 will make it possible to conclude the Doha Round as soon as possible, with agreements on all elements of the agenda and a special focus on development. (...) It is also working to improve trade standards, in particular to avoid the excessive use of anti dumping measures, eliminate fisheries subsidies , and revise the dispute settlement provisions.