A General Overview of the Colombian Intellectual Property Landscape in 2025

Between 2022 and 2025, Colombia’s intellectual property (IP) system underwent a series of regulatory and institutional changes, generating some concern among rights holders, innovation stakeholders, and both domestic and foreign investors. A combination of evolving expectations in IP enforcement, structural adjustments within the Superintendency of Industry and Trade (Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio, SIC), and broader government decisions has raised questions about the reliability and efficiency of the current IP regime.

Colombia’s IP regulatory framework is divided between the SIC, which oversees trade marks, patents, industrial designs, and other industrial property rights, and the National Copyright Directorate, which manages copyright and related rights. 

Copyright

Colombia has made sustained institutional efforts to strengthen the copyright system through streamlined online registration and enforcement programs. However, systemic challenges persist. Piracy remains a widespread issue across the audiovisual, literary, and digital content sectors. Despite improvements in formal registration procedures, enforcement remains limited in reach and inconsistent in practice. As of 2025, the system continues to provide insufficient protection to creators, particularly in digital markets, and fails to act as an effective deterrent against piracy, as per international reports such as the IP Index and the Special Report 301. 

Patents

Colombia’s patent system is under significant pressure. Although the average prosecution time has remained nearly three years, data for 2025 indicates a marked increase in rejections and objections, particularly in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. This is due in part to Colombia’s strict application of Decision 486 of the Andean Community and the Andean Manual for Patent Examination.  In practice, objections are raised regarding divisional applications and insufficient disclosure. 

Moreover, the topics gravitating towards biological inventions have also been highly debated due to the recent acceptance of the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge which interacts with Andean Decision 486 and Andean Decision 391, both Decisions regulate in part, access to genetic resources (GR) for inventions that are based on local GR.

The absence of clear national guidance on access contracts and benefit-sharing mechanisms has created legal uncertainty for applicants in the life sciences, particularly foreign entities seeking patent protection for innovations involving biological materials or traditional knowledge.

According to SIC data, only 56 out of 594 patent applications filed between January and April 2025 came from Colombian residents (9%), while non-residents accounted for 91% of filings. This imbalance reflects Colombia’s limited local innovation pipeline and underscores structural barriers faced by domestic applicants.

Colombia also lacks key pharmaceutical IP protections commonly adopted in other jurisdictions:

No patent linkage mechanism exists to prevent the marketing authorization of generic drugs that infringe on existing patents.
No Regulatory Data Protection (RDP) applies to biologics, reducing incentives for research in this area.
Further controversy surrounds the compulsory license granted in April 2024 for dolutegravir, a WHO-recommended HIV treatment. Although issued under the “government use” exception for public health purposes, observers note that the measure was implemented primarily for cost control rather than as a last-resort access strategy. The license was formalized through Resolution No. 20049 of the SIC, based on the Ministry of Health’s Resolution 1579 of 2023, and is set to remain in force until April 2026. While global health advocates have applauded the decision, it has drawn criticism from rights holders and may set a precedent that affects investor confidence.

Trade marks

Trade marks remain the most widely used IP mechanism in Colombia. Between January and April 2025, the SIC received 16,781 trade mark applications, of which 59% were from Colombian residents and 41% from non-residents. However, the efficiency of the trade mark prosecution system has weakened significantly.

In 2022, it took approximately six months to receive a first substantive decision. As of 2025, the average waiting time has increased to two to three years, depending on the number of opposition filings and examiner availability. The backlog is evident in the figures: while 16,781 applications were received, only 4,114 decisions were issued, indicating that nearly 75% of cases remain unresolved.

Despite these procedural delays, Colombia continues to attract substantial interest from foreign applicants, particularly in classes related to pharmaceuticals (Class 5), technology (Class 9), and cosmetics (Class 3). Resident applicants, on the other hand, concentrate their filings in Class 35 (retail services), Class 41 (education and entertainment), and Class 43 (hospitality)—a reflection of Colombia’s service-oriented economy.

Conclusion

Colombia’s intellectual property framework, while formally aligned with international standards, is currently facing significant operational challenges. From procedural bottlenecks and political uncertainty to underdeveloped mechanisms for biopharmaceutical protection, the IP system requires attention.

To build a more reliable and innovation-friendly IP environment, Colombia could ensure greater transparency and reduce discretion in administrative decisions, accelerate the implementation of commitments under international treaties such as the Nagoya Protocol and provide clear guidance on genetic resource access and introduce RDP for biologics, incentives for orphan drugs, and a patent linkage framework to strengthen pharmaceutical IP to set some examples. 

Lastly, despite the strategic objectives set out in CONPES 4062, which outlines Colombia’s National IP Policy, implementation remains limited. As Colombia positions itself as a hub for innovation and trade in the Latin American region, strengthening its IP infrastructure will be essential for attracting sustainable foreign investment and supporting domestic technological advancement.