Real Property

Secured interests in property, including mortgages, are recognized and common in Argentina. Such interests can be easily and effectively registered. They also can be readily bought and sold. Argentina manages a national registry of real state ownership (Registro de la Propiedad Inmueble) at http://www.dnrpi.jus.gov.ar/ . There are no specific regulations regarding land lease and acquisition of residential and commercial real estate by foreign investors. Law No. 26,737 (Regime for Protection of National Domain over Ownership, Possession or Tenure of Rural Land) establishes the restrictions of foreign ownership on rural and productive lands, including water bodies. Foreign ownership is also restricted on land located near borders.

No data is available on the percent of all land that does not have clear title.

Legal claims may be brought to evict persons unlawfully occupying (squatting) real property, even if the property is unoccupied by the lawful owner. However, these legal proceedings can be quite lengthy, and until the legal proceedings are complete, evicting the squatters is problematic. The title and actual conditions of real property interests under consideration should be carefully reviewed before acquisition.

Argentine Law No. 26.160 prevents the eviction and confiscation of land traditionally occupied by indigenous communities in Argentina, or encumbered with an indigenous land claim. Indigenous land claims can be found in the land registry. Enforcement is carried out by the National Institute of Indigenous Affairs, under the Ministry of Social Development.

Intellectual Property Rights

The government of Argentina adheres to most treaties and international agreements on intellectual property (IP) and belongs to the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization. The Argentine Congress ratified the Uruguay Round agreements, including the provisions on intellectual property in Law 24425 on January 5, 1995.

Argentina remained on the Priority Watch List in the 2017 Special 301 Report. Despite some recent progress, Argentina continues to present long-standing and well-known deficiencies in IP IP protection and enforcement, and is a challenging market for IP-intensive industries. A key challenge in Argentina is the lack of effective IP enforcement by the national government. Argentine police do not take ex officio actions, prosecutions can stall, cases may languish in excessive formalities, and even when a criminal investigation reaches final judgment, infringers do not receive deterrent sentences. In terms of physical counterfeiting and piracy, the notorious market of La Salada in Buenos Aires is one of the largest open-air markets in Latin America offering high rates of counterfeit and pirated goods, and it continues to thrive. La Salada is listed in the 2016 Notorious Markets Report. While optical disc copyright piracy is widespread, Internet piracy continues to be a growing concern and criminal enforcement for online piracy is nearly nonexistent. As a result, IP enforcement online in Argentina consists mainly of right holders trying to convince cooperative Argentine online providers to agree to take down specific infringing works, as well as attempting to seek injunctions in civil cases. Copyright holders also cite widespread use of unlicensed software by Argentine private enterprises and the government.

There are a number of ongoing challenges to innovation in the agricultural chemical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical sectors, including with respect to patent pendency, scope and term of patent protection, and meaningful enforcement options. There is a substantial backlog of patent applications resulting in long delays to register rights and Argentina does not provide provisional protection for pending patents. Pursuant to a highly problematic 2012 Joint Resolution establishing guidelines for the examination of patents, Argentina summarily rejects patent applications for categories of pharmaceutical inventions that are eligible for patentability in other jurisdictions, including in the United States. Additionally, to be patentable, Argentina requires that processes for the manufacture of active compounds disclosed in a specification be reproducible and applicable on an industrial scale. Resolution 283/2015, introduced in September 2015, also limits the ability to patent biotechnological innovations based on living matter and natural substances. The United States remains concerned that Argentina does not appear to provide adequate protection against the unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure, of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical or agricultural chemical products. These measures limit the ability of companies investing in Argentina to protect their IP and appear inconsistent with international practice.

Over the last year, Argentina took noteworthy steps to improve IP protection and enforcement including legislative initiatives, enforcement operations, procedural enhancements for patent protection, and the creation of bilateral engagement mechanisms. The Government of Argentina introduced several legislative proposals to improve the protection and enforcement of IP: a bill to provide for landlord liability and enhance enforcement in non-conventional, or informal, marketplaces such as La Salada; a bill to amend the trademark law to increase criminal penalties for counterfeiting carried out by criminal networks; and a bill to enhance protection for industrial designs. Other legislative initiatives including regulation of collective management organizations, criminal sanction including for anti-circumvention measures, and the creation of a federal specialized IP prosecutor’s office are reportedly in the drafting stages. While these legislative initiatives are welcome, others raise questions and potential concerns. Though well intentioned, elements of various legislative proposals to update the national seed law may negatively affect the ability to protect and enforce plant variety rights and other IP and a bill regarding responsibilities of ISPs may discourage effective action against piracy over the Internet. With respect to enforcement operations, the city of Buenos Aires conducted operations to close illegal street vendors but the lack of a national IP enforcement strategy limits successes to targeted neighborhoods in the capital.

The National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) has taken steps to confront its lengthy patent examination backlog. In September 2016, INPI issued a regulation creating expedited procedures for patent applicants that have obtained patents in other jurisdictions. INPI is also hiring more patent examiners and working towards digitalization of internal procedures and a more efficient online application management system. In addition to collaborating with other international patent offices, INPI and the USPTO commenced in March 2017 a Patent Prosecution Highway pilot program to increase efficiency and timely review of patent examinations. The Governments of Argentina and the United States established a bilateral Innovation and Creativity Forum under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement and held productive first meetings in December 2016. The United States is hopeful that the important steps Argentina has taken as well as its plans for future progress will bear tangible results, thereby creating a more attractive environment for investment and innovation.

For statistics on illegal sales in Argentina, go to the following link: http://redcame.org.ar/seccion/relevamiento-venta-ilegal 

For additional information about national laws and points of contact at local IP offices, please see WIPO’s country profiles at http://www.wipo.int/directory/en/ .

The Argentine government has state-owned enterprises (SOEs) or significant stakes in mixed-capital companies in the following sectors: civil commercial aviation, water and sanitation, oil and gas, electricity generation, transport, paper production, satellite, banking, railway, shipyard, and aircraft ground handling services. A list of state-own enterprises, enterprises under concession and enterprises with state participation can be found here: https://www.argentina.gob.ar/SIGEN .

By Argentine law, a company is considered a public enterprise if the state owns 100 percent of the company’s shares. The state has majority control over a company if the state owns 51 percent of the company’s shares. The state has minority participation in a company if the state owns less than 51 percent of the company’s shares. Argentine Law 25.156 regulates state-owned enterprises and enterprises with state participation.

Through the government’s social security agency (ANSES), the Argentine government owns stakes ranging from one percent to 31 percent in 46 publically-listed companies. U.S. investors also own shares in some of these companies. As part of the ANSES takeover of Argentina’s private pension system in 2008, the government agreed to commit itself to being a passive investor in the companies and limit the exercise of its voting rights to 5 percent, regardless of the equity stake the social security agency owned. In April 2011, the Argentine government removed the five percent cap and moved to increase ANSES’ influence over these companies by nominating members for their boards of directors and exercising influence over issues such as dividend payments. A list of such enterprises can be found at: http://fgs.anses.gob.ar/participacion 

State-owned enterprises purchase and supply goods and services from the private sector and foreign firms. Private enterprises may compete with SOEs under the same terms and conditions with respect to market share, products/services, and incentives. Private enterprises also have access to financing terms and conditions similar to SOEs. SOEs are subject to the same tax burden and tax rebate policies as their private sector competitors. SOEs are not currently subject to firm budget constraints under the law, and have been subsidized by the central government in the past; however, the Macri Administration is working to reduce subsidies in the energy, water, and transportation sectors. Argentina does not have regulations that differentiate treatment of SOEs and private enterprises. Argentina has observer status under the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement and, as such, SOEs are subject to the conditions of Argentina’s observance.

Argentina is not part of the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) within the framework of the WTO.

OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of SOEs

Argentina does not have a specified ownership policy, guideline or governance code for how the government exercises ownership of SOEs. The country generally adheres to the OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of SOEs. The practices for SOEs are mainly in compliance with the policies and practices for transparency and accountability in the OECD Guidelines.

Argentina does not have a centralized ownership entity that exercises ownership rights for each of the SOEs. The general rule in Argentina is that requirements that apply to all listed companies also apply to publicly-listed SOEs.

Privatization Program

No information available on Argentina’s privatization program. The current government has not developed a privatization program, although there is speculation that the administration may try to look into the issue in the future.