Bufete Mejía & Asociados

Firm Details:
Managing Partner: Ricardo A. Mejía
Senior Partner: Tito A. Mejía
Number of staff: 30 (paralegals)
Number of lawyers: 14

Firm Overview:
Bufete Mejía & Asociados is Honduras’s leading intellectual property, advertising and commercial law firm. With offices in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, the firm is capable of rendering impeccable services in a cost-effective manner. The firm specialises in the prosecution, defence and enforcement of patents, trademarks and copyrights. It has been consistently ranked at the top of its field and has earned a reputation as the most dependable full service intellectual property law firm in Honduras. The firm is also recognised for providing timely and efficient counselling on licence and franchise agreements, advertisement issues and regulatory matters. The firm also handles unfair competition and infringement cases and has experience before the Honduran Customs Office and higher administrative offices. All partners and associates are members of the Honduran Bar Association and qualified to act before all courts and governmental offices, including the Honduran Supreme Court. The firm is the Honduran member of the Bomchil group (Association of Latin-American Law firms – established in 1963). Bufete Mejía & Asociados has a staff of almost 30 professionals and support staff, distributed in offices in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. The past year was a year of sustainable growth in the area of litigation, particularly patent enforcement litigation and lawsuits before the general attorney’s office, division of special crimes, for seizure, prohibition of entry into the country, and confiscation of counterfeits as well as very advantageous with regards to the increase of services for contracts distribution, employment and corporate aspects in general. With regards to requests of trademarks and other distinctive signs the firm exceeded the barrier of 1,500 applications during the past year. BMA has also grown considerably in the area of patents. Services in all of the main areas of practice spanning though the entire region have substantially and steadily increased over the past ten years. Nowadays, clients from all industry sectors and from all over the world entrust the firm to coordinate and provide top notch comprehensive intellectual property services, including enforcement and defence, in the entire Central-American region.

Main Areas of Practice:
Intellectual Property: 50%
Corporate: 10%
Advertising Law: 5%
Regulatory Affairs: 10%
Corporate/Commercial: 10%
Litigation: 10%
Domain Names: 5%

Trademark Law:
Searching, prosecution, legal defence, enforcement and counselling on trademarks, service marks, trading names, slogans, designs, geographical indications, appellations of origin and other distinctive signs.

Copyright Law:
The practice involves registering and enforcing copyrights as well as counselling clients on a wide range of issues such as work for hire, fair use, renewal and termination of rights, with respect to literary works, unpublished literary works, pseudonymous works, software, musical works, phonograms, works of art, audio-visuals, cinematographic or similar works. Advertising Law: BMA represents clients in advertising, marketing and promotion matters. Clients include name-brand advertisers, advertising agencies, production companies, advertising agency networks, talent payroll companies, media companies, technology companies, publishers, film studios, television networks, cable channels, leading trade associations, authors, musicians and celebrities.

Patent Law:
Searching, prosecution, legal defence, enforcement and counselling on patents, including portfolio management, licensing and technology transfer. The firm works closely with its clients to safeguard and strengthen their investment in research and development through the most suitable figure of protection. The firm handles patents in the chemical, biological, mechanical, pharmaceutical, electrical, electronic, textile, automotive, and computer arts fields.

IP Transactions & Counselling:
Thoughtful and insightful counselling on IP transactions. Due diligences for M&A, licensing of IP rights, audit of IP portfolios, negotiations of IP contracts and agreements, securing interests for IP rights. Counselling on data protection, including the development of privacy notices in all its forms, ensuring proper use by its clients of collected information.

Sports Law:
The practice provides individuals and sport organisations and federations with expert and timely counselling, negotiation, drafting and revision of agreements, including employment, sponsorship, marketing, advertisement, branding, and image rights within printed and electronic media.

Regulatory Affairs:
Cost-effective, fast and quality services in the registration of pharmaceutical products, foods and beverages, cosmetics, fertilisers, medical devices, natural products and veterinary products. The firm also have a strong environmental practice including assessment, procurement of environmental licenses and permits as well as risk management counselling on this area of law.

Corporate Law:
This group is unique in its origin. Different from mainstream corporate law groups, the firm’s was born from its IP clients’ need for corporate services. This experience working with technical industries means that the firm has the capability to understand a company’s legal needs from the inside out. BMA calls this the ‘partnership approach’.

Litigation:
Different from many other IP firms, litigation is not just another ‘area of practice’. Its intellectual property litigation practice has been a cornerstone of the firm since its founding and has a strong proven record of achieving successful results for its clients in litigation involving all aspects of practice including: patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, unfair competition and false advertising.

Domain Names:
Intellectual property on the cyberspace is one of the most important aspects of many companies and individuals that BMA helps to protect and enforce. The firm has a team of experts that handle domain registrations, renewals, transfers of ownership before the corresponding offices.

Contacts:
Trademarks: Alexa Fasquelle
Patents: Gisela Molina
Copyright: Blanca Rebeca Mejia
Advertising Law: Ricardo Mejía
Regulatory Affairs: Julia Mejía
Corporate/Commercial: Tito Mejía
Litigation: Héctor Fernández
Domain Names: Blanca Rebeca Mejia