During the second session of the National Council of Orange Economy (CNEN) held last March, ProColombia presented the seal “ Crea Colombia ” as a hallmark of creativity and talent of Colombian entrepreneurs in the world .
The “ Crea Colombia ” seal will identify Colombian entrepreneurs to the world. According to the Ministry of Culture, the seal would seek to strengthen the creative industries that contribute to the Colombian economy and strengthen identity, facilitating access to creative goods and services originating in the country, and thus promoting the cultural appropriation of the contents that this seal would identify and the wealth and identity of the country [1] .
The Minister of Information Technologies and Communications (MinTIC) Sylvia Constaín, in the Colombia 4.0 event (which brings together the sectors of technology, creativity and digital creative industries) defined the seal as follows:
“ The ‘Crea Colombia’ seal will be a badge that will go with everything that you are doing in this sector (…) that will be our seal of the pure creative industry of our country, something of what we have to be more than proud of. This seal will go on our video games, on our content, on the software that you make. This way we will show that we have talent and that we are putting it at the service of the country and the world ” [2]
So far the Ministry of Culture affirms that the distinctive will function from now on as a mark of origin, and in this sense there are several ways to protect this type of signs, depending on the approach that the National Government wants to give it and the administration that will have the sign.
This seal is part of the signs that identify a collective interest, which can be a collective mark, a certification mark or a designation of origin.
Collective mark, certification mark or denomination?
The collective mark is a sign that distinguishes the origin or a particular and common characteristic of products or services belonging to different companies and that is managed by a single owner. This type of trademark requires that copies of the statutes of the association or organization requesting it and the members, conditions and manner in which the sign will be used in the market be provided at the time of application.
Despite being one of the forms of protection, it is not the most appropriate because if the sign has to be administered by the National Government, there would not be an association in which the aforementioned administration falls.
The appellation of origin, for its part, consists of a sign that identifies a product with a specific geographical origin and with characteristics that are due to the geographical environment in which it is produced. The appellation of origin is not applicable to the Colombia Crea seal sign either, insofar as it is not about products and services whose characteristics or quality is associated with a particular territory.
Finally, there is the certification mark, which is a sign that aims to distinguish products or services whose quality or other characteristics have been certified by the owner of the mark. This type of signs can be requested by public or private entities or international organizations. Likewise, these requests must be accompanied by a trademark use regulation, the characteristics that the trademark certifies and the way in which the owner exercises control over it.
This kind of trademark is the most appropriate in the case of the “Colombia Crea” seal, insofar as it would directly identify the origin and characteristics of certain products and services and It would allow the National Government to have control and administration over the use of this brand.
Regardless of the means of protection chosen by the national government, the seal sign “ Colombia Crea” will be the mark of Colombian creativity and talent, which has the potential to become an important alliance between the public sector and entrepreneurs, to be aligned, speaking the same language in relation to the creative and cultural industries.
By Juan Pedro Arias
[1] Ministry of Culture, Strategy Colombia Crea 2030, Retrieved from: http://www.mincultura.gov.co/Economa%20Naranja/assets/files/COLOMBIA%20CREA%202030.pdf
[2] Ministry of Culture, The Colombian Orange Economy is consolidated, Retrieved from: http://www.mincultura.gov.co/prensa/noticias/Paginas/Se-consolida-la-Econom% C3% ADa-Naranja-colombiana.aspx