Enforcement

What is piracy?

This expression refers to certain acts of usage not authorized by the titleholder of a copyright or related rights nor included in any exception explicitly established in the respective law. With said illegitimate uses, the normal usage of intellectual creations by authors, artists, and creative industries are affected.

The term piracy is in normal use in intellectual property matters to refer to illicit reproduction (copying) and distribution of copies of works and intellectual creations. These copies are made without obtaining the required authorization in Chile or in the country the copy is made, constituting an infringement to copyright or related rights in the country where said copies arrive to be subsequently distributed.

Piracy is subject to penalties especially when it is done on a commercial scale or for commercial ends, as it affects the fair compensation that copyright holders are entitled to for the legitimate use of their works and intellectual creations. In particular, this activity affects works and intellectual creations belonging to the following categories, among others:

Literature

Music

Audio-visual creations

Computer programs

Videogames

Databases containing intellectual creations

Radio and TV broadcasts

What is counterfeiting?

The term counterfeiting as it is used in industrial property matters refers especially to the malicious use, with commercial ends, of a trademark identical or similar to others for the same products, services, or establishments.

Products that are subject ot counterfeiting include:

Clothes

Perfumes and cosmetics

Toys

Cigarettes

Handbags and luxury goods

Other intellectual property rights infringements

Trademarks, copyright, and related rights are not the only rights that can be infringed by these crimes. Patents, utility models, layout designs or topographies of integrated circuits, industrial designs and drawings, geographical indications, and appellations of origin can also be infringed. If a titleholder’s rights are infringed, he or she has recourse to criminal and/or civil proceedings established in the law.

In the case of infringements of industrial property rights (patents, utility models, layout designs or topographies of integrated circuits, industrial designs and drawings, geographical indications, and appellations of origin), the crime is penalized with a fine.

In the case of infringement against copyright and related rights, the crime is penalized with a fine, with imprisonment imposed in some cases.