A trademark may consist of a sign or set of signs that can be represented graphically, namely words, including the names of persons, drawings, letters, numbers and sounds, the form of the product or respective packaging, provided that they adequately distinguish the products and services of one company from those of others.

A trademark may also consist of advertising phrases for the respective products or services, provided that they are distinct in character, regardless of the protection conferred upon them by copyrights.

Registration confers upon the holder the right of property and exclusivity of the trademark for the respective products and services for which it is designed.

Registration confers upon the holder several rights, namely the right to oppose to the use or registration of any similar sign by third parties, when used to designate identical or similar products or services to those designated by its trademark registration.

There are several types of trademark:

• Word Trademarks: Comprised exclusively of verbal elements, particularly words, including names of persons, letters or numbers.
• Figurative Trademarks: Comprised exclusively of figurative elements, such as drawings, images or pictures.
• Mixed Trademarks: Comprised of verbal and figurative elements.
• Sound Trademarks: Comprised of sounds.
• Three-dimensional Trademarks: Composed by the form of the product or respective packaging.
• Trademarks comprised of advertising phrases: Composed by slogans.

A logotype may consist of a sign or number of signs that can be represented graphically – namely by word or figurative elements or a combination of both – appropriated for distinguishing an entity that provides services or commercializes products.

A logotype, as the trademark, may be word, figurative or mixed (word + figurative).

It can be used, for instance, in places of business, advertising, forms and correspondence.

The logotype incorporated the legal figures "Name of establishment" and "Emblem of Establishment", these being extinct (except for transitional rights still in force).

Appellation of origin is defined as the name of a region, of a specific place or, in exceptional cases, of a country, which serves to designate or identify a product:

• Originating from that region, specific place or country;
• Whose quality or characteristics are derived, essentially or exclusively, from the geographic environment, including the natural and human factors, and whose production, processing and development are carried out within the demarcated geographic area.

Appellations of origin, when registered, are the common property of the residents or those established in the place, region or territory, in an effective and serious manner and can be used indistinctly by those, within the respective area, who are engaged in any characteristic production branch, when authorised by the registration holder.

Geographic indication is defined as the name of a region, of a specific place or, in exceptional cases, of a country, which serves to designate or identify a product:

• Originating from that region, specific place or country;
• Whose reputation, specific quality or another characteristic can be attributed to that geographic origin and whose production, processing or development are carried out within that demarcated geographic area.

Geographic indications, when registered, are the common property of the residents or those established in the place, region or territory, in an effective and serious manner and can be used indistinctly by those, within the respective area, who are engaged in any characteristic production branch, when authorised by the registration holder.

New inventions involving inventive activity can be patented if they have an industrial use, even if they apply to a product consisting of or containing biological material or to a process that produces, treats or uses biological material.

Patents may be obtained for any inventions, be they products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that these inventions comply with the set forth above.

New processes for obtaining known products, substances or compositions may also be patented

If the patent is granted, the holder will hold an exclusive right that shall entitle it to prevent, for a certain period of time, third parties, not having its consent, from manufacturing artefacts or products that are object of the patent, applying the methods or processes patented, importing or exploiting economically the protected products or processes.

I.e., a patent is a contract between the State and the holder of that patent.

The same invention may be the object, simultaneously or subsequently, of an application for a patent and for a utility model.

New inventions involving an inventive activity can be protected as utility models, if they have an industrial application. The aim of utility models is to protect inventions by means of a simpler, speedier administrative procedure than that for patents.

However, they do not allow to protect inventions involving biological material or substances or chemical or pharmaceutical processes.

The same invention may be the object, simultaneously or subsequently, of an application for a patent and for a utility model.

However, the utility model shall expire after the grant of a patent for the same invention.

The topography of a semiconductor product is a set of related fixed or encoded images that represent the three-dimensional layout of the layers making up the product, in which each image shows the layout or part of the layout of a surface of the same product in any stage of its manufacture.

A semiconductor product is the final or intermediate form of any product meeting all the following criteria:

• It consists of a material body including a layer of semiconducting material;
• It has one or more layers composed of conducting, insulating or semiconducting materials arranged in accordance with a predetermined three-dimensional pattern;
• It is intended to perform an electronic function, exclusively or in conjunction with other functions.

A design or model represents the appearance of a product in whole or in part by virtue of such characteristics as lines, contours, colours, forms, textures or materials used in the product itself and its ornamentation.