Arias

On February 1st, 2024, Law 419/2024 (hereinafter “the Law”) was issued, “which regulates medicines and other human health products and the public procurement of medicines, other human health products, health supplies, medical devices and equipment, and dictates other provisions.” This law regulates, in general, the manufacture, quality control, sanitary registration, importation, marketing, distribution, acquisition, and information and […]

Do you, as shareholders of a company, have a customized instrument that reflects and supports how you wish and have agreed to manage your company? In general, agreements of this nature respond to a private contract through which shareholders, freely and in protection of their best interests, foresee and establish from basic elements of the […]

On November 9th , 2023, in use of her faculties, the Director of the National Health Regulation Authority (hereinafter “ANRS” by its abbreviation in Spanish), approved the Regulation for the withdrawal from the market, final disposal of products regulated by the ANRS and management of substandard and falsification products; which would have a transitory period […]

On February 01, 2024, the National Congress of Honduras, through Legislative Decree number 61-2023 published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta under number 36,449, approved and granted significant assistance to alleviate the financial burden of companies and citizens who owe payments to the National Electric Power Company [Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica (ENEE)]. This benefit […]

By means of Legislative Decree No. 923, dated January 3, 2024, which was published in the Official Gazette No. 6, dated January 10, 2024, and which became effective 8 days after its publication, amendments to the Hydrocarbons Law were approved, which in turn was published in the Official Gazette No. 52 of March 17, 1981; […]

This law, as can be seen from its own explanatory statement contained in the initiative 5544, aims to update Guatemalan legislation dating back to 1970, providing an adequate legal framework that regulates everything related to credit cards in national practice, as a fundamental instrument in commercial and credit operations; particularly, as an instrument that allows […]

DECREE ON THE IMPORTATION OF MEDICINES COMES INTO FORCE FOR PARALLEL IMPORTATION OR BY A THIRD PARTY NOT AUTHORIZED BY THE HOLDER OF THE MEDICATION IN COSTA RICA Today , December 12, 2022, Executive Decree No. 43657-S enters into force , which  was published on August 19, 2022 in the Official Gazette La Gaceta. What does this regulation look […]

The Costa Rican State needs to go to the debt markets each year to finance approximately half of its budget. To obtain them, there are two financing channels: the internal debt market… Written by: Diego Gallegos Partner [email protected] Read more

In our business environment, when talking about “Compliance” or regulatory compliance, there is a general belief that it is only about the Prevention of Money Laundering (PLA), or about anti-corruption issues; but that approach is limited. “Compliance” also applies to other areas such as antitrust activities, personal data protection and compliance with environmental regulations, as well as […]

On November 22 of this year, the piece of correspondence was submitted to the Legislative Assembly in relation to the Bill called the Digital Assets Issuance Law (hereinafter the “Project”). Said Project has entered the process of discussion by the Economic Commission of the Legislative Assembly, with the purpose of establishing a legal framework that grants […]

President Rodrigo Chaves and his Ministers of the Presidency, Public Safety, Health, Agriculture and Livestock promoted file No. 23383, with the initial text of the draft CANNABIS CONTROL AND REGULATION LAW FOR RECREATIONAL USE, which seeks to regulate the use, production, distribution, sale and possession of psychoactive cannabis for recreational use in the adult population. Additionally, […]

By Law 316/2022 Panama makes compulsory the filing of an Affidavit containing any relationship linked to the provider of the public function, paid or not, that could generate a potential conflict of interest. This includes personal, family and even donors that may influence decisions related to the position or that could end in a lack […]

Companies have the opportunity to invest resources in reforestation and forest conservation and obtain significant benefits in return. Among these benefits could be highlighted the following at a commercial level: the addition of value to their products and / or services, opening of new lines of business that can satisfy an increasingly growing and exigent […]

On September 30, 2022, the Constitutional Chamber issued a ruling of unconstitutionality for total omission by not regulating the reinstatement measure for the dismissed pregnant woman, an omission that according to the plaintiffs violates the implicit mandate contained in articles 2 paragraph 1, 42 paragraph 1, 50 and 65 of the Constitution, which recognize, among others, […]

AMENDMENTS TO VALUE ADDED TAX (VAT) REGULATION IN ORDER TO ISSUE INVOICES AS “FINAL CONSUMER” Oct/2022 Through Government Agreement No. 245-2022, published on October 14th, 2022, in the Official Gazette, amends Article 30 of Value Added Tax Regulation (Government Agreement No. 5-2013), which imposes a new threshold to issue invoices as “Final Consumer” (C.F.) to […]

NOTES ON THE PROCESSES FOR PURCHASING MEDICINES IN THE CCSS IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW GENERAL LAW OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN COSTA RICA A new General Law on Public Procurement in Costa Rica will enter into force on December 1, 2022, along with its Regulations. One of the great milestones of this new contracting […]

The entry into force of the Insolvency Law, Decree 8-2022 of the Congress of the Republic, on September 6, 2022 implies a total change in the Guatemalan regulation regarding the insolvency and bankruptcy of individual and legal persons, whether they are merchants or No. Read more

APPROVAL OF THE LOVE TURNED INTO FOOD LAW FOR THE PROMOTION, PROTECTION AND SUPPORT OF BREASTFEEDING On September 27, 2022, the Legislative Assembly approved the “Love Turned into Food Law for the Promotion, Protection and Support of Breastfeeding”, whose purpose is to guarantee the right of all girls and boys to breastfeed, through the adoption […]

On November 5, 2021, WIPO Standard ST.26 was approved. This Standard defines the nucleotide and amino acid sequence disclosures in a patent application required to be included in a sequence listing, the manner in which those disclosures are to be represented, and the Document Type Definition (DTD) for a sequence listing in XML (Extensible Markup […]

As of June 2022, the Costa Rican Antitrust Authority (“COPROCOM”) implements the Leniency Program. This Program grants incentives to individuals and companies that participate in practices related to horizontal restraints, so they disclose these practices to COPROCOM. The persons or entities that participate in this Program can obtain an exemption of 20% and up to […]

In recent days, the Insurance Superintendency of Panama approved Rule No. 02 of 2022, which regulates the use of electronic signatures in the documentation related to the insurance sector. This legislation came into effect on July 20, 2022. Read more

Decree 27-2022 of the Congress of the Republic, Law of Preferential Interest Rate for the Access to Social Housing, has as an object aiding Guatemalan families to acquire their first house. For such purpose, a subsidy has been established by the State of Guatemala to the interest rates for the acquisition of houses characterized as […]

On July 26, 2022, the “Law 1097 Law of the Nicaraguan Legal Digest on Business, Industry and Commerce” was published in issue number 137 of The Gazette Official Daily, with the purpose of strengthening the legal security and regulatory uniformity in the business sector. The Digest compiles ordered lists of the legal norms in force; […]

EL SALVADOR – THE CONGRESS APPROVES AMENDMENT TO THE LABOR CODE TO ESTABLISH AS OBLIGATION THE REGISTRATION OF TEMPORARY AND TRIAL PERIOD WORKERS TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY REGIME On July 19, 2022, the Congress approved amending article 29 of the Labor Code, incorporating section 10th), which states that employers have the obligation to enroll their […]

By Presidential Decree No. 04-2022, published in La Gaceta, Official Gazette No. 35 of the twenty-second of February of the year two thousand and twenty-two, the National Climate Change Policy (the “Policy”) was approved. Among others, the Policy reinforces policies and lines of action to promote comprehensively and effectively the management of climate change at […]

What is the nature of the maritime zone regime in Costa Rica? The maritime terrestrial area in Costa Rica is the first 200 meters measured horizontally from the high tide line. The maritime zone includes islands, pinnacles of rock, mangroves, estuaries, and any small natural formation that overcomes the level of the ocean. This zone consists of […]

Electronic commerce has revolutionized the way of doing business today, both for the commercialization of goods and for the provision of services, allowing the entrepreneur to position himself in the market, interact with users without having a physical presence and offer goods and services internationally. , thus creating a new panorama in commercial relations. However, despite […]

GENERAL CONCEPTS ABOUT TRADEMARKS   The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) defines the concept of intellectual property (IP) as the creations of the intellect: ranging from works of art to inventions, computer programs, trademarks and other commercial signs. [1] Being an extremely comprehensive concept, we will focus this article specifically on a well-known intellectual property right: trademarks, specifically […]

REGULATORY GUIDE TO ACQUIRE AN ESTABLISHMENT ALREADY IN OPERATION: IDENTIFICATION AND TRANSFER OF PERMITS To acquire and maintain a commercial, industrial or service establishment in operation, the transfer of permits, licenses and other regulatory requirements must be managed before various public institutions. In order to avoid delays in the start of operations and even potential sanctions, […]

On February 14, 2022, Law No. 284 of 2022 (“Law 284”) was enacted, repealing Law No. 31 of 2010 and becoming the governing provision of the horizontal property (“PH” as per its acronym in Spanish) regime. Although Law 284 does not represent a substantial modification of the existing regime and it follows to a great […]

In 2021 and so far this year, there has been an increase in investments on construction projects in El Salvador. From a legal standpoint, this constitutes a challenge to the construction industry due to the high level of disputes and conflicts that usually arise between contractors and owners. These conflicts generally occur when the contracts […]

In accordance with a study carried out by the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT) between 2019 and 2020, certain countries in Latin America (Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and the Dominican Republic) were not able to collect from 227 to 255.4 million US dollars on taxes derived from the lack of […]

In accordance with the last modification of the Statutes of the Patent Law in 2014, among other relevant changes in the form and substance of patentability examinations, the formal possibility of requesting an interview with the examiner was established. Although it is true that before said modification of the statutes, the interviews with the examiners […]

Law 81/2019 on the Protection of Personal Data in Panama exempts from its scope of application, those procedures that are expressly regulated by special laws or by the regulations that develop them. However, the provisions and postulates on the protection of personal data contained in Law 81/2019 and Executive Decree 285/2021 are only minimum standards, […]

In the context of Data Privacy, consent is associated with the right of the content of informative self-determination, which gives special interest to the development of rules of security of processing, transparency and information of the person, so that said interest, according to the criteria of the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice,  […]

Guatemala´s Constitutional Courts are being negligent; constantly violating the rights of their citizens. It´s important to know that anyone can report any violations since it´s established in the law that Courts… Continue reading

Here are some recommendations for multinational companies to follow which shall help reduce the risk of suffering cyberattacks. yberattacks are constantly increasing in number and complexity; and this does not seem to change for 2022. This has led to many regulators to start working on introducing (or have introduced) new laws focused on both cybersecurity […]

  IS MY COMPANY OBLIGED TO COMPLY WITH THIS NEW LAW? The General Law of Water Resources (“Law”) approved by the Legislative Assembly on December 21, 2021 after almost six months of discussion and revision of the project presented by the Minister of Environment to the Assembly on June 18, 2021. The Law was published […]

The future of Contracting: What are Smart Contracts? Recently, technological advances have increased exponentially. With each passing year, new programs and devices invented transform the status quo of various activities and professions, which is no exception for the hiring area.  From time immemorial, people have entered into contracts to regulate transactions with each other, whether […]

Law 81/2019 on the Protection of Personal Data in Panama exempts from its scope of application, those procedures that are expressly regulated by special laws or by the regulations that develop them. However, the provisions and postulates on the protection of personal data contained in Law 81/2019 and Executive Decree 285/2021 are only minimum standards, […]

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have proven to be an effective tool for strengthening public policies, since they not only make possible the mobilization of resources from the private sector, both in financial and information terms, but it also allows bothsectors to align and integrate their efforts to the proper implementation of policies. Intellectual property is no […]

The Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance through Ministerial Agreement 206-2021 approves the new Regulations for Clinical Trials in Humans, which are effective from October 30, 2021. Ministerial Agreement 299-2019 of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance, Regulations for the Regulation of Clinical Trials in Humans, is repealed. This Regulation aims to […]

On November 24, 2021, the decree “Procedure for simplified health registration by notification, health registration, registration recognitions, raw materials, control and surveillance of processed foods and low-risk cosmetics”, number 43291-S, was published in the Official Newspaper La Gaceta, aiming to implement a new mechanism for simplified registration by notification. The new mechanism will allow the […]

Sometimes the definition or meaning of expert, profession or professional varies from region to region around the world. Patent professionals in the United States can be divided into two main groups, patent agents and patent attorneys. But what happens when we try to match these professionals with their counterparts in other geographic sections? Latin America is one of […]

Today, October 11, the President of the Republic and the Minister of Health signed Executive Decree number 43249-S which establishes the obligation for Public Sector workers to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus and also empowers Private Sector employers to establish in their internal policies said vaccination as mandatory for their collaborators, in order to […]

¿QUÉ DEBE SABER? La incursión en internet y en nuevas tecnologías a inicios de los noventa, implicó para muchos empresarios un cambio en su modelo de negocio para adaptarse a las nuevas necesidades de los consumidores y usuarios. Históricamente el comercio electrónico se denominó “intercambio electrónico de informaciones”, conocido como EDI (electronic data interchange) por […]