Porzio Ríos García > Santiago, Chile > Firm Profile

Porzio Ríos García
CERRO EL PLOMO NO 5680
PISO 19
SANTIAGO
Chile

Chile > Intellectual property Tier 3

Porzio Ríos García‘s sizeable IP group consistently advises on the prosecution and litigation of patents, trade marks, utility models, industrial designs, copyrights, domain names, advertisements and plant varieties. It is also active in anti-counterfeiting actions, IP-related contracts and patent applications. The practice is jointly led by name partners: Marino Porzio, a former World Intellectual Property Organisation officer; Hernán Ríos de Marimón (litigation, trade marks, patents, copyright and domain names); and Cristóbal Porzio, whose broad practice includes industrial property contracts. The second line of advisers features IP partners Marcelo Correa and Antonio Varas, while Mercedes Valdivieso (patents) and Josefina Mora (trade marks) are key associates.

Practice head(s):

Marino Porzio; Hernán Ríos de Marimón; Cristóbal Porzio Honorato

Key clients

Natural Response

Desert King Chile

Weir Minerals

BHP Billiton

Ford Motor Company

Banco Itau

Huawei

Universidad Del Desarrollo

Universidad De Santiago De Chile

SMU

Mbi Inversiones

Dr Ing H C F Porsche Aktiengesellschaft

Hyundai Motor Company

Jaguar Land Rover

Mastercard International

Comercial E Industrial Plásticos Hoffens

Compañía De Petróleos De Chile (Copec)

Cooperativa Agrícola Pisquera Elqui

Helm

AXA

Natura Cosméticos

The Body Shop

Avon

Puig France

Work highlights

  • Assisted Weir Minerals with obtaining a patent for a pump intake device.
  • Assisted Universidad de Santiago de Chile with an application concerning a food product.
  • Assisted Olivos del Sur with one of its main marks.

Chile > Labour and employment Tier 3

With particular expertise in mining-related employment issues, Porzio Ríos García‘s labour, employment, social security and immigration law practice is experienced in labour-related restructurings, collective bargaining, and discrimination and unfair labour practice litigation. Other key areas range from  health and safety regulations, to compliance and internal investigations, employee benefits, social security and global mobility. The firm also houses specialists in immigration, executive transfers and M&A-related labour issues. The ‘cohesive‘ team is led by name partner Ignacio García, a longstanding labour and employment law expert, while ‘key adviserFernando Villalobos focuses on strategic litigation involving non-compete issues and unfair labour practices. Associates Laura Kottmann and Camila Quiroz both act in labour and employment disputes.

Practice head(s):

Ignacio García

Testimonials

Exceptional client service, with excellent knowledge of the law and good practical suggestions.

Perceived as friends and not just lawyers. The advisers take a personal interest in the client (without sacrificing their professionalism) and are very friendly.

One of the firm’s strongest points is comprehensive advice and its search for creative and varied solutions (depending on the case being reviewed).

A cohesive team that works closely with the client.

Fernando Villalobos is a proactive leader, with high technical knowledge, who manages to understand the dynamism of the client’s industry when giving opinions and advice.

We mainly work with Fernando Villalobos, who is a key adviser on the labour issues that we go through as a company, and  professional, assertive and with timely responses – always willing to provide all the clarifications/explanations that are necessary to make informed decisions.

Key clients

Atrápalo

Agroreserves

Wesco Inernational

Eecol Chile

Anixter

Vertiv

BHP Billiton

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints

Desert King

Fluitek

John crane/smiths

Jones Lang Lasalle

Liberty Mutual

Occidental Chemical Petroleum

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart

Samsung

State Grid

Swedish Space Corporation

Ruby Tuesday

Versachem

National Oilwell Varco

Bollore

CGM Nuclear Energy

Stantec

Amdocs

Work highlights

  • Assisted Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saint Days with a religious standard-related termination of an employee’s employment.
  • Assisted Occidental Chemical Petroleum with a dispute involving an alleged unfair labour practice lawsuit, which was filed by the Labour Authority on behalf of a union.
  • Assisted Desert King in a dispute involving the termination of a high-level manager for alleged breach of a non-compete breach.

The firm: The law firm Porzio, Rios, Garcia was founded in 1993, as Porzio, Ríos & Asociados, beginning its activities mainly in the intellectual property field. It was founded by Marino Porzio who, by that time had already gained extensive experience in the IP field as a consequence of an outstanding career in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), where he was Deputy Director General for over nine years, before becoming President of its General Assembly. Its specialised professional services, together with the command of several languages, led its clients, both Chilean and foreign, to entrust the firm with legal matters in other fields of law, motivating the partners of the firm to develop additional areas of the legal profession in order to provide its clients with a full legal service, in addition to its traditional leading IP services. Porzio, Rios, Garcia consists of a team of lawyers who graduated from the most prestigious universities in the country, many of whom have completed graduate degrees in foreign universities. Many of them also act as arbitrators in domestic and international procedures, and are academics at the main law schools in the country.

Areas of practice
Corporate and commercial: The firm offers high quality services in the areas of general corporate and commercial law, which include custody and management of corporate books and registries; mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring; audit and due diligence reviews; joint-ventures; public and private bids; commercial representation contracts; concessions; dissolution and liquidation of companies; antitrust, free competition; consumer protection law; and real estate law.

Intellectual property:

  • Patents, life sciences and plant varieties: The firm offers advice in the protection of foreign and local inventions, dealing in particular with pre-filing stage, including state of the art searches, feasibility and novelty analysis and drafting of patents. The firm regularly assists major pharmaceutical companies with registration and litigation matters. This department includes a qualified technical staff and scientists experienced in all fields of science and technology, many of them former examiners at the Chilean Patent Office. The firm also offers advice for the filing and prosecuting of applications for the registration of plant varieties with Chilean Agricultural Authority and eventual litigation in this field
  • Trademarks, domain names and new technologies: A specialised team offers advice to foreign and national clients to device strategies for protecting their trademarks in Chile through the proper registration and defense. Additionally, the firm offers their clients services of filing and handling their foreign portfolio in other countries. A reliable domain names department protects trademarks on the Internet, obtaining an impressive rate of favorable decisions in arbitral assignation procedures. The firm also deals with new IP matters such as use of trademarks on social media and protection of the personal data on the internet
  • Copyright, entertainment and advertisement: The firm assists its clients in the protection of their creations, giving advice in respect of the licensing and drafting of other related agreements. The firm also advises clients in the TV field and the rights on image issues. Notably, a specialised department deals with advertising self-regulatory matters

FInancial market: The firm offers advice to its clients in their debt and equity issuances, having expertise as well, assisting in the distribution of such securities and instruments. In addition, the firm has been involved in transactions such as IPOs, tender offers and securities issuances. The lawyers of the firm also assist its clients with their regulatory needs, acting as well in administrative proceedings with capital markets regulators and legal defense in stock exchange, derivatives and capital market litigation.

Labour and employment: The firm has a solid prestige in the areas of labour, employment, immigration and social security law. This expertise includes regulatory compliance, collective bargaining and labour relations involving unions; individual and collective contracts; unfair dismissal litigation; health and safety regulations, employee benefits, personal taxation, social security and pension law; global mobility, immigration laws, executive transfers and visa processing; labour revisions, M&A processes and harmonisation of corporate benefits as well as training workshops in labour matters.

Litigation: Composed of an experienced team, the litigation department of the firm engages in all kind of litigation, including civil, commercial, administrative, labour, insolvency, both domestic and international and in all fields of intellectual property, free competition and false advertisement. For the implementation of these tasks, the firm acts before different authorities of the government for all kind of administrative problems and disputes, and on pre-trial and trial instances acts before national courts at all levels, including the Supreme Court of Justice of the country, as well as in the sphere of arbitration tribunals.

Tax: The firm offers high quality tax consulting services to domestic and foreign corporations as well as to high-wealth individuals/families. Due to its comprehensive vision of legal services, the firm includes tax matters in all relevant advice, making sure that tax effects and contingencies are considered in all of its clients’ activities. The tax services provided by the firm include domestic and international tax planning, corporate restructuring, tax aspects of corporate practice due diligence, tax advice to family businesses, legal reports on tax matters and the defense of our clients in tax claims before the Chilean Internal Revenue Services and Courts of Justice”.

Trade and commerce: The firm advises in all areas of international trade law, commercial agreements, including distribution and franchising contracts, international taxation and customs law; free trade agreements; trade defense and WTO law; non-tariff barriers; and structuring of supply chain management.

DepartmentNameEmailTelephone
Commercial and corporate Ignacio Garcíaigarcia@porzio.cl56227290600
Commercial and corporate Cristóbal Porziocporzio@porzio.cl56227290600
Consumer protection and free competition Marcelo Correamcorrea@porzio.cl56227290600
Customs and international trade Ignacio Garcíaigarcia@porzio.cl56227290600
Customs and international trade Andrés Sotomayorasotomayor@porzio.cl56227290600
Consumer protection and free competition Marcelo Correamcorrea@porzio.cl56227290600
Commercial and distribution Cristóbal Porziocporzio@porzio.cl56227290600
Commercial and distribution Ignacio Garcíaigarcia@porzio.cl56227290600
Intellectual Property Marcelo Correamcorrea@porzio.cl56227290600
Labour and Employment Fernando Villalobosfvillalobos@porzio.cl56227290600
Tax Tomás Alvareztalvarez@porzio.cl56227290600
Number of lawyers (partners and associates) : 23
Number of other professionals : 5
English
French
German
Italian
Portugese
Spanish
AIJA - International Association of Young Lawyers
INTA - International Trademark Association
Pharmaceutical Trade Marks Group (PTMG)
ASIPI
AIPPI (Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property)
Partners : Marino Porzio
Partners : Hernán Ríos
Partners : Cristóbal Porzio
Partners : Ignacio García
Partners : Marcelo Correa
Partners : Antonio Varas
Partners : Bernardita Torres
Partners : Fernando Villalobos