TL;DR: In Argentina you must file a sworn mid-term declaration of use (declaración jurada de uso) between the fifth and sixth anniversary of your trademark registration. Miss it and the law presumes your mark is not in use, which opens it to cancellation by third parties and blocks your renewal until you file it and pay the fee. This is separate from the declaration required at renewal, it is easy to overlook because most countries have nothing like it, and it is one of the most common ways foreign brands quietly lose ground on a mark they thought was safe. Here is what the declaration is, the exact deadline, the penalty, and how to stay compliant.
Quick overview: Argentina amended its trademark law in 2018 and added a maintenance step that catches out brands from India, the US, the UK, and most of Europe, because their home systems do not have it. Between years five and six of a ten-year registration, the owner has to swear that the mark is being used in Argentina. It is a short filing, but the consequences of forgetting it are not short: a legal presumption of non-use that a competitor can act on. This guide walks through the rule, the deadline that trips people up, what happens if you miss it, and how it fits into the wider Argentine use requirement, written from the perspective of local practice before INPI.
What the mid-term declaration of use is
Argentina runs a registration-based trademark system. You get your rights by registering with INPI, the National Institute of Industrial Property, not by being first to use the mark. That part is familiar to anyone who has registered in a first-to-file country.
What is not familiar is the maintenance obligation that comes later. Under the trademark law as amended in 2018, the owner of a registered mark must file a sworn declaration confirming that the mark has been used in Argentina, and must do it at the mid-point of the ten-year term. This is the declaración jurada de uso, the mid-term declaration of use, and it is a genuine sworn statement, not a formality you can treat casually.
The obligation was introduced by Trademark Law No. 22,362 as amended by Law No. 27,444, which ratified Decree 27/2018, and the procedure was set out in Decree 242/2019 and INPI Resolution 123/2019. If you registered a mark in Argentina and have not thought about it since the certificate arrived, this is the step you may be about to miss. Our guide to registering a trademark in Argentina covers the filing stage; this is what happens at the halfway mark of the life you have just given the mark.
The deadline that trips people up
Here is the exact window, because the timing is the whole point. The declaration must be filed between the fifth and sixth anniversary of the registration. Not before year five, not after year six. It is a one-year window that opens halfway through the ten-year term.
That framing is what causes the misses. Brands are conditioned to think about trademarks at two moments: when they file, and when they renew at year ten. The mid-term declaration sits in the quiet middle, years five to six, when nobody is looking at the mark because nothing appears to be due. There is no renewal to prompt it and, for a foreign owner without local counsel watching the docket, no natural reminder. The mark is sitting there registered and apparently safe, and the clock is running on an obligation the owner does not know exists.
It is worth being clear that this is a distinct obligation from the use statement required at renewal. At year ten, when you renew, you also declare that the mark has been used in the five years before expiry. The mid-term declaration at years five to six is an additional, earlier checkpoint. One does not replace the other. A brand that only thinks about use at renewal has already missed the first deadline by four years.
What happens if you miss it
Missing the mid-term declaration does not automatically erase your registration. That is the first thing to understand, and the reason some owners underrate the risk. The consequence is more subtle, and in some ways more dangerous, because it does not announce itself.
Failing to file on time creates a legal presumption that the mark has not been used. That presumption is rebuttable, meaning you can still prove actual use if challenged, but the burden has shifted onto you, and the door is now open. On the strength of that presumption, a third party, often a competitor who wants your name or a squatter who spotted the lapse, can request cancellation of the registration for non-use, in whole or in part. This is a contested proceeding of the same broad family as the opposition process foreign brands face in Argentina, and it is far easier to avoid than to fight. Under the amended Section 26 of the trademark law, INPI can cancel a mark, on its own initiative or at a party’s request, where it has not been used in the country in the five years before the cancellation request, unless there was force majeure.
There is a second, quieter penalty. When you eventually go to renew the mark at year ten, the renewal will not be granted until the outstanding mid-term declaration has been filed and its fee paid. So the missed deadline resurfaces at the worst possible moment, when you are trying to keep the mark alive, and it can hold your renewal hostage. If you are also weighing what it costs to keep a mark in force, our breakdown of Argentina trademark costs and INPI fees sets out the fee side.
The pattern we see with foreign brands is not dramatic non-use. It is a company that genuinely sells in Argentina, is genuinely using the mark, and simply never filed the piece of paper that says so, then finds a competitor using that gap to attack a perfectly good registration.
The use requirement behind the declaration
The declaration is a checkpoint, but the thing it is checking is real use, and that is where a subtlety catches people out. It is not enough to have used the mark somewhere in a way you consider close enough.
Argentine courts have taken a firm line that using a mark in a materially different form from the one registered can count as non-use of the registered mark. In one case decided by the Federal Civil and Commercial Court of Appeals (Bago Group SA v. Laboratorios Elea Phoenix SA, Chamber II, 2021), using a mark with a different design or typography from the registration was treated as a transgression that could support cancellation. The practical lesson is that your actual use in the market needs to match what is on the register. If your logo, wordmark, or styling has drifted over five years, and many brands refresh their look on roughly that cycle, the mark you are using may no longer be the mark you registered, and a declaration of use plus a real-world audit is the moment to catch that. Where the look has changed, the answer is often to file fresh applications for the updated mark rather than rely on the old registration.
This is also why the mid-term declaration is worth treating as a genuine review rather than a box-tick. It is a natural prompt to check three things at once: that the mark is in use, that the version in use matches the register, and that it still covers the goods and services you actually sell.
How Argentina compares to the systems foreign brands know
The reason this deadline gets missed so often is that it is unusual. Setting Argentina beside the systems most foreign owners are used to shows why their instincts do not warn them.
| System | Mid-term use filing? | When use is tested |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina | Yes, sworn declaration at years 5-6 | At years 5-6, and again at renewal (year 10) |
| India | No | Use is relevant to cancellation, but no periodic declaration |
| United Kingdom | No | Vulnerable to non-use cancellation after 5 years, but no proactive filing |
| European Union | No | Non-use challengeable after 5 years, no periodic declaration |
| United States | Yes, but on a different clock | Declarations between years 5-6 and at each renewal |
The closest parallel is the United States, which also requires a use declaration between the fifth and sixth years. Brands with US experience sometimes have the right instinct. But owners coming from India, the UK, or the EU are used to a world where use only matters reactively, if someone brings a non-use action, and nothing has to be filed proactively to keep a mark alive mid-term. Argentina flips that expectation, and the flip is what costs them. If you are managing a portfolio across several of these countries, the safest assumption is that Argentina has a calendar entry the others do not.
How to stay compliant
Staying on the right side of this is not difficult once you know it exists. The difficulty is entirely in not knowing.
Diarise the window the day your registration is granted, both the fifth and sixth anniversary, so the obligation surfaces on your own calendar rather than depending on memory five years later. When the window opens, use it as a prompt to audit the mark, confirming it is genuinely in use in Argentina, that the version in use matches the register, and that the goods and services still reflect your business. File the sworn declaration within the window and pay the associated INPI fee. If the mark has fallen out of use, or the look has changed materially, take advice before filing, because a false declaration of use carries its own risks and a changed mark may need a fresh application. And if you own the mark from outside Argentina, keep local counsel watching the docket, since the mid-term deadline is exactly the kind of date that slips when nobody in-country is tracking it.
For foreign brands especially, the sensible frame is to treat the mid-term declaration as part of the cost of holding a live registration in Argentina, in the same breath as renewal, rather than as an optional extra you deal with if a problem arises. By the time a problem arises, a competitor is usually already holding the better hand.
Frequently asked questions
What is the mid-term declaration of use in Argentina?
It is a sworn statement (declaración jurada de uso) that the owner of a registered trademark must file with INPI, confirming that the mark is being used in Argentina. It was introduced when the trademark law was amended in 2018 and is regulated by Decree 242/2019 and INPI Resolution 123/2019. It must be filed at the midpoint of the ten-year registration term, between the fifth and sixth anniversary of registration, and it is separate from the declaration of use required later at renewal.
When exactly is the declaration of use due in Argentina?
Between the fifth and sixth anniversary of the trademark’s registration, a one-year window that opens once the mark has been registered for five years and closes at the sixth anniversary. It cannot be filed before the fifth year, and filing after the sixth year means it is late. Because it falls in the quiet middle of the ten-year term, with no renewal to prompt it, it is the deadline foreign owners most often miss.
What happens if I miss the mid-term declaration of use?
Missing it does not automatically cancel your registration, but it creates a rebuttable legal presumption that the mark has not been used. On the strength of that presumption, a third party can request cancellation of the mark for non-use, in whole or in part, under Section 26 of the trademark law. Separately, when you later try to renew the mark at year ten, the renewal will not be granted until the outstanding declaration is filed and its fee paid. So a missed deadline can both expose the mark to attack and hold up your renewal.
Is the mid-term declaration the same as the declaration at renewal?
No. They are two different obligations. The mid-term declaration is filed between years five and six of the registration. At renewal, around the tenth anniversary, you must separately declare that the mark has been used in the five years before expiry. One does not substitute for the other, so a brand that only addresses use at renewal has already missed the earlier mid-term deadline.
Does the declaration apply to trademarks owned by foreign companies?
Yes. The obligation applies to registrations regardless of whether the owner is Argentine or foreign, and foreign owners are the ones most likely to miss it because their home systems usually have no equivalent. Owners domiciled outside Argentina also have to maintain a local address for service and are best served by having local counsel monitor the docket, precisely so mid-term deadlines like this one do not slip.
What counts as use of the trademark in Argentina?
Genuine use of the registered mark in connection with the goods or services it covers, in the Argentine market. A subtlety worth knowing is that Argentine courts have treated use of a mark in a materially different design or typography from the registered version as non-use of the registered mark. So if your branding has changed since registration, the mark you are actually using may differ from the one on the register, which can undermine both the declaration and the registration itself. In that situation, filing a fresh application for the updated mark is often the safer course.
Written by María Laura Cristín. María Laura Cristín is an Argentine attorney admitted to practise before the Santa Fe Bar Association since 2015. She advises businesses and international clients on trademark registration, intellectual property, corporate law, contracts, market entry, regulatory compliance, dispute resolution, and commercial matters in Argentina. Her local knowledge helps ensure trademark filings before INPI comply with Argentine legal and procedural requirements.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Argentine trademark procedure and deadlines depend on the specific facts of your registration and can change. For advice on your own mark, speak to a qualified Argentine attorney.
If you own a trademark in Argentina and are not sure whether your mid-term declaration is due, or you want your Argentine filings monitored so a deadline like this never slips, our team can help. Learn more about our trademark services in Argentina, or explore all our legal services in Argentina.
