TRADEMARK MANAGEMENT AT COMPANIES FROM SERGIPE: FROM THE OPENING TO FILING THE APPLICATION

Trademarks have a fundamental paper to designate provenance of products or manufacturers, in addition to having vast importance in relations between companies and consumers, coming to be considered the most important of the intellectual properties. In Brazil, obtained regulation from the Decree 2682 of 1875, and are currently regulated by Law n(o) 9279 of May 14, 1996, his registration is held by the INPI. The objectives of this study are to evaluate whether the Sergipean companies promote the protection of their trademarks through registration, in order to implement a state panorama related to trademark registration for that is subsequently possible to trace actions and objectives to promote the culture of protection to trademarks. The sample searched was 761 companies from Sergipe, subdivided into five groups of classes of activities, named according to their relationship with their branches and denominated as follows: Construction, Foods, Confection and Graphic Services and the remaining are grouped in a class called Other Activities. Data were collected from the Secretariat of the Federal Revenue of Brazil and the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI). Data analysis was conducted using a quantitative approach and show an average of 8.62 years for the application to be made by the companies, counted from the year they were open, the Limited Liability Partnership companies takes 8.95 years and the Sole Proprietorships takes 7.9 years on average. The branches Graphics and Construction Service activities presented the companies with the highest average, 12.75 and 10.61 years, respectively.