By Gaspar Guardia — Agent No. 2197, INPI | contacto@promarca.com.ar
Since March 2026, Argentina’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) has rolled out the most significant package of trademark reforms in years. Together, four resolutions have changed how long registration takes, how official fees are calculated, how parties are notified of case developments, and how oppositions are resolved. For foreign law firms acting as correspondents, IP managers filing directly, and entrepreneurs looking to protect a brand in Argentina for the first time, these changes affect budgeting, docketing and strategy alike. Here is a practical rundown of what changed and what it means for you. For a complete overview of how trademark registration in Argentina works today — filing, timelines, and costs — see our guide to trademark registration in Argentina.
A four-part reform, not a single resolution
It helps to think of «the March resolution» as a cluster of related measures rather than one rule:
Resolution 583/2025 (published December 11, 2025), which narrowed the substantive examination INPI performs on new applications and introduced AI-assisted screening, with effects becoming fully visible from March 2026 onward.
Resolution 63/2026 (published February 26, 2026), making electronic notifications mandatory in trademark proceedings as of March 1, 2026.
A parallel reform of the opposition procedure, also applying to applications filed from March 1, 2026, which consolidates what used to be several sequential stages into one.
Resolution 75/2026 (published March 20, 2026), creating UMAPI, a new inflation-indexed unit used to calculate INPI’s official fees, effective April 1, 2026 and fully operational from May 1, 2026.
Each is worth understanding on its own, because each changes a different part of the workflow.
Faster registration, but less of an official safety net
Under Resolution 583/2025, INPI now limits its own review of new applications to absolute grounds for refusal — things like protected designations of origin or marks contrary to public order or morality — rather than the broader relative-grounds review it used to conduct. Artificial intelligence now performs an initial technical screening, and applications that clear it can move directly to publication. For straightforward filings — no claimed foreign priority, no power of attorney formalities pending, and goods or services drawn from INPI’s standard nomenclature rather than manually described — total registration time can now run around two months when no opposition is filed, down from well over a year previously.
The trade-off is important for anyone managing a portfolio in Argentina: INPI no longer proactively blocks confusingly similar third-party applications the way its relative-grounds examination once did. If a conflicting mark is filed and the earlier owner does not oppose it in time, INPI can grant it. In practice, this means trademark watching services and proactive docketing are no longer optional extras for Argentina — they are close to essential for anyone who wants to preserve exclusivity.
Your Local Correspondent for Argentina’s New Filing Rules
With INPI no longer proactively blocking conflicting applications, a trademark watch is no longer optional — it’s how you protect your clients’ portfolios under the 2026 rules. PROMARCA acts as your on-the-ground correspondent in Argentina: filing, monitoring, and defending marks on your instructions, while the client relationship stays yours.
Talk to Us About a Correspondent AgreementUMAPI: fees that move with inflation
Resolution 75/2026 replaced INPI’s practice of periodically updating fixed peso fees with UMAPI (Unidad de Medida Arancelaria de la Propiedad Industrial), an indexed unit similar in concept to Argentina’s UVA used in mortgages. Instead of a fixed peso amount per procedure, each item in INPI’s fee schedule is now expressed as a number of UMAPI units, and INPI publishes an updated peso value for one UMAPI every month, adjusted according to the consumer price index.
To calculate the cost of a procedure, multiply the UMAPI figure listed for that procedure by the current monthly UMAPI value published on INPI’s fee portal. As of this writing, INPI’s own worked example on its portal uses a rate close to $397 pesos per UMAPI, but because the value changes monthly, the only reliable source for the current figure — and for the exact UMAPI multiple assigned to each specific procedure (filing, each additional class, extra items beyond the standard allotment, renewals, oppositions, and so on) — is INPI’s official fee page:
https://portaltramites.inpi.gob.ar/InfoPortal/Aranceles
Two practical consequences for anyone quoting fees to clients or budgeting a filing program in Argentina: first, a peso quote given one month may no longer be accurate the next, so it is worth pricing in UMAPI terms internally and converting at the time of payment rather than locking in old peso figures. Second, UMAPI does not apply across the board — variable fees, tariff-difference payments and percentage-based charges tied to contract value (relevant for technology transfer agreements, for instance) continue to be calculated the traditional way.
Notifications: no more grace period
Resolution 63/2026 made electronic notification through INPI’s online portal mandatory for a range of proceedings — including office actions (vistas), certain transfers (traslados) in incidental proceedings, and interlocutory decisions — that previously appeared in the printed Trademark Bulletin. Just as significant as the shift to digital delivery is what was removed alongside it: the roughly 30-day suspension that used to apply before deadlines began to run has been eliminated. Deadlines now start counting from the day after notification is posted to the portal.
For correspondents and in-house counsel managing Argentine filings from abroad, this raises the practical bar. Periodic checks of the printed Bulletin are no longer sufficient; portal accounts need to be monitored on a systematic, near-continuous basis, and local counsel’s contact and electronic address details need to be kept current. Missing a notification no longer buys the cushion it once did.
A leaner opposition procedure
INPI has also consolidated its opposition process. Previously, opposition proceedings unfolded across several separate phases, including a dedicated evidence-production stage that could stretch out resolution considerably. Under the new procedure — which applies to applications filed from March 1, 2026 onward, with earlier applications continuing under the old rules — parties are expected to submit their arguments and supporting evidence together, upfront, rather than in a later autonomous stage. A short window (around 15 days) after the standard three-month opposition period lets an opposing party confirm it intends to maintain the opposition; a combined fee payment then allows the matter to proceed to administrative resolution, with a further window available for mediation or other alternative dispute resolution. Digital evidence remains subject to strict formal requirements — precise, freely accessible URLs, since dead links will simply be disregarded.
The upshot: opposition strategy in Argentina now needs to be front-loaded. Parties that used to hold back evidence for a later stage should plan to have it ready at the outset instead.
What this means for renewals
Argentina’s underlying renewal framework has not changed: registrations still run for ten years from the grant date, and renewal still requires filing the mid-term declaration of use (declaración jurada de uso de medio término) between the fifth and sixth anniversaries of registration, confirming — without needing to submit supporting evidence at that stage — which goods or services the mark has actually been used for. INPI will not process a renewal application until that declaration has been filed, and failure to file it on time creates a rebuttable presumption of non-use that leaves the registration exposed to third-party cancellation actions.
What has changed is the environment around renewal: the renewal fee itself is now calculated in UMAPI rather than a fixed peso amount, and any notifications INPI issues in connection with a renewal or a related incident will typically arrive through the electronic portal under the new notification rules, on the tighter deadline calendar described above. Anyone tracking a renewal date for an Argentine registration should treat the mid-term declaration deadline and the renewal window with the same portal-monitoring discipline now required everywhere else in the system.
Practical checklist for foreign correspondents and applicants
For a firm or business managing Argentine trademarks from outside the country, the reforms point to a few concrete adjustments: confirm that local counsel’s electronic notification address on INPI’s portal is current and actively monitored; budget filings and renewals in UMAPI terms and check INPI’s fee page at or near the time of payment rather than relying on a quote from a prior month; put in place (or confirm) a trademark watch so that conflicting third-party applications can be identified and opposed within the statutory window, since INPI will no longer catch them automatically; and, when opposition becomes necessary, prepare evidence and arguments to be filed together from the start rather than held back for a later stage.
None of this changes the fundamentals of why Argentina remains a first-to-file jurisdiction worth registering in early — but it does mean that speed, in both directions, now cuts both ways: registration can be faster, and so can losing ground to someone else’s filing if nobody is watching.
About the author
Gaspar Guardia is a Trademark Agent registered with INPI (Agent No. 2197). For inquiries about trademark filing, renewal or portfolio management in Argentina, contact contacto@promarca.com.ar.