Preguntas Frecuentes

The Consumer Protection Statute governs all advertisement. Notwithstanding, depending on the good to be advertise, there are special rules to be followed, i.e. alcoholic beverages, medicines, among others.

No. The Consumer Protection Statute rules all kind of advertisement, including in social media.

Consumers must be given complete, truthful, transparent, timely, verifiable, understandable, accurate and appropriate information regarding the offered goods and/or services.

Any consumer might file a complaint or the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce can initiate an investigation, both of which can lead to a monetary sanction.

Any communication directed to consumers, concerning a good or service.

It is the set of norms that protects the author as creator of a literary, scientific or artistic work, which is a product of ingenuity and is original and perceptible by the human senses. The work can be displayed in different forms, being: novels, short stories, didactic and scientific texts, poems, drawings, paintings, sculptures, architecture, photographs, audios, videos, motion picture, television, computer programs (software), among others.

For clarification purposes, it is important to state that hence, merely the concrete form of a work embodied in a language, annotation, recording or other material that enables potential reproduction can be protected. Ideas (in someone’s head), methods and procedures which are not embodied in any object perceptible by the human senses, are not protected.

The physical, natural person (human being) that realizes the intellectual creation of a literary, scientific or artistic work. So, in order to be considered the author or co-author of a work, the person has had to carry out, by him – or herself, the mental process of conceiving and expressing a literary, scientific or artistic work. Consequently, the mere contribution of ideas that serve as antecedents for the creation of the work or the purely physical or mechanical, non-creative contribution to the creation of the work, do not attribute the status of author.

The protection granted to the author is born from the moment he creates the work, without it being necessary to comply with any legal formality (i.e. registration before the Colombian Centre of Copyrights – CECOLDA) nor with a certain quality, theme or destination. Notwithstanding, the registration is an important probative medium.

The protection of a copyright shall be:

– For natural persons: not less than the life of the author plus 80 years after his / her death.
– For legal persons: not less than 50 years counted from the completion, disclosure or publication of the work.

A copyright is different to other common property, since it also has a personal prerogative, inherent to the author. Consequently, a copyright generates two different rights: moral rights and economic rights.

– Moral right: A perpetual, inalienable and non-subjected to a statute of limitations, as a consequence of the indivisible union of the author and its work. By the virtue of this right, the author has the power to decide on the disclosure or modification of its work as well as the right to claim at all times his / her paternity on the work or, on the contrary, to use a pseudonym or disclose it anonymously.
– Economic rights: This right concerns the economic benefits for the author or his beneficiaries that can be derived from the use of the work. Economic rights, unlike moral rights, can be transferred free of charge or onerous to other natural or legal persons, or by virtue of the law may be held by persons other than the author, as is the case of works carried out in the development of a contract of employment or a contract for the provision of services. They allow the owner to control, authorize and / or prohibit the use and exploitation via reproduction, public communication, distribution, translation, etc. of his / her work.

The right of the owner (not per se the author) to authorize or prohibit the making of copies of his work by means of print or digital systems (i.e. CD ROM), among others.