Firm Description

Palacios & Asociados was founded in 1994 devoted to provide legal and consultancy services through a group of highly qualified professionals and staff members in different areas. The Firm has more than fifteen years in business and counts with correspondent offices in all the Central American Countries, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

The Firm is committed to provide specialized and high quality services to its clients, and to support client’s business projects and objectives in an ethical, efficient and timely manner.

Our commitment to the excellence of the services provided to our clients, is strengthened by our efforts to provide continuity to the values we have set: Integrity, Loyalty and Accountability.

Currently, our Firm is formed by 28 full time members and 6 part time Attorneys (34 persons).

Palacios & Asociados´s main expertise areas:

Intellectual Property and Advertising Law: IP is served in an integral manner, from the registration and portfolio management services (including the Central American region and the Dominican Republic through our correspondent offices) regarding trademarks, patents, copyrights, industrial designs and other intellectual property categories to specialized consultancy work and advisory, locally and regionally. Our team is conformed with Lawyers and Engineers, many of whom have had previous experiences serving in the IP Office or Registry. The Firm’s or our members’ experiences in national and regional consultancy and advisory services include working with transnational corporations with business presence in the region, regional economic integration entities (the Central American Economic Integration Secretariat –SIECA-), foreign government agencies (the United States Agency for International Development –USAID-; the United States Patent and Trademark Office –USPTO-), European Cooperation programs and multilateral organizations (the World Intellectual Property Organization –WIPO-). Our Director Partner served as senior consultant for a SIECA-USAID IP regional project for more than 8 years; has served as consultant to WIPO in several Latin American countries and in India. Regional-level experiences include projects aimed at strengthening the legislation and institutional capacity and regional training programs on enforcement.

The Firm provides specialized services relating to the intellectual property subspecialty area of Pharmaceutical Law. In addition to patent matters, the Firm provides services regarding regulatory and marketing matters and has been pioneer in working in the implementation of test data protection and patent linkage. At the advisory level, the Firm has served the association of transnational R&D Pharmaceutical companies with business presence in Central America (FEDEFARMA), for more than 9 years.

Advertising Law, particularly for regulated products; this is a specialty area of our Law Firm. Included in this area are advertising campaign approval services, promotions, raffles, prizes and consultancy services for the marketing team.

Corporate Law, Commercial Contracts and Notary Services: Incorporating companies, legal services relating to the corporate governance and administration of the entity; services in the banking, finance and credit areas. With regard to specialized contracts, our firm provides assistance with distribution contracts, licensing and franchises. The firm offers complete notary services and also attends to matters involving Competition Law and Consumer Law, areas in which it works jointly with Weinstock Abogados” (with head offices in Costa Rica), providing coverage throughout the Central American region. This division is in charge of providing Tax Law services, and complements its services by working with recognize auditors in the region.

The Firm has a large experience in acquisitions in the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic, serving both foreign and local investors.

International Trade Law and the Central America Integration Law: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica make up what is known as the Central American Common Market –CACM—The CACM was established in 1960. Although it is not technically a common market, it is a very dynamic Free Trade Zone in which member countries have implemented various measures for higher stages of commitment that will lead to greater levels of integration; a concrete example of such commitment is the signing, in January 2009, of an agreement by El Salvador and Guatemala, to implement the Customs Union between their territories.

Central America represents a market of close to 30 million individuals with a domestic trade of over US$6,300 million in 2008. Companies operating in Central America consider it extremely important to appropriately manage the legal instruments governing business relations within Central America and understand how to make good use of such instruments so as to improve competitiveness within the CACM. Our Firm offers specialized services in this area, exclusively destining a division to the International Trade and Central American Integration Law area.

Regarding business negotiations with countries outside Central America, our services are focused on bilateral and multilateral business negotiations and on implementing and administrating such, including matters relating to the World Trade Organization (WTO). We provide consultancy and services on the domestic administration of trade obligations and commitments; regulations on original, market access, unfair trade and other trade matters and even support our clients by representing them directly in different negotiation forums.

Litigation and Constitutional Law: Constitutional Law, in Guatemala, is an area that is largely practiced through litigation. Our Firm provides legal opinion and assessment services regarding matters of conflict and potential conflicts and provides litigation services through “constitutional processes”, such as actions for the protection of rights guaranteed by the Constitution, the unconstitutionality of the law, and legal analysis, among others) as well as in the civil, criminal, constitutional and administrative and fiscal areas. Our litigation division also provides services to prepare evidence and perform investigations, and the professionals in this division have broad knowledge and experience in matters of arbitration.