Honduras provides protection of intellectual property by the World Trade Organization standards. The government has approved to uphold Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), which means that entities who subscribe treaties to Honduras that are ratified by the National Congress of the Republic shall become part of the domestic legislation of Honduras. The Industrial Property law also protects property and consumers, making it illegal to have unfair competition with regards to geography or face a fine. According to Article No. 170 of Decree 12-99-E, “an act of unfair competition is any act carried out in the course of business or for the purposes of business which offends against the rules of good faith and honest business uses and practices”. In regards to common protection for intellectual property such as being able to obtain a patent, the Honduran law makes no express provisions on these. If another entity uses a trademark without consent will be treated as an act of “unfair competition” and the owners may defend their property rights and their case can be heard by the courts. The Industrial Property law is the only law that protects trademarks and geographical indications (Council …show more content…
Honduras has some organizations that regulate products available to the public by foreign markets. Label regulations are carried out by the General Directorate of Production and Consumption of the Ministry of Health and Trade and extra regulation exists for agriculture and medication, as established by the Health Code and Phylo-Zoo Sanitary Law. The Industrial Property law makes it illegal for businesses to falsify where their goods originated from, and makes it illegal also to use misleading words such as “kind” “type” “style” etc. (Council 2007). All processed foods in Honduras are required by law to have labels in Spanish and registered with the Sanitary Regulation Directorate. This means that they must either have a Sanitary License, Sanitary Registration number, or Sanitary inscription to be put on the market. To obtain this takes normally 30 days, and exporters need to check with the Sanitary Regulation Directorate to verify all is correct. One exception is if the country is a member of the Central America Customs Unit, where a product registered here is legal for all countries in the unit to produce. Further information required on labels include the product and manufacturer’s name, the country of origin, the lot number, the expiration and manufacture dates, net content, list of ingredients, and applicable health warnings. These are monitored under the Food and Agricultural Import Regulations and Standards. Some products are illegal to