Colombia

• Available Market Research
• Best Prospects in the ICT Market
• Chambers of Commerce
• Channels of Distribution
  • Agents / Distributors
  • Business to Business (B2B)
    • Banks
    • Newspapers
    • US Subsidiaries
  • E-Commerce
    • Internet
    • Internet Service Providers
  • Educational
  • Governmental
  • Retailers
  • Telecommunications Systems Operators
  • Used / Reconditioned
  • VARs, ISVs,  Resellers and System Integrators
    • ISVs
    • VARs
• Intellectual Property Rights
• Directories and Databases
• Duties, Tariffs & Taxes
• General Country Information
• Market Research
• Search Engines
• Technical Standards
• Trade Associations
• Trade Publications
• Trade Shows, Exhibitions and Seminars
• Trade Statistics
• User Groups
• E-Mail Links to the Respective Industry Specialist(s)

Available Market Research

Industry Sector Analyses are industry specific reports prepared either by US Commercial Service Staff or local market research contractors.   Typical reports include:

• A Market Overview
• Market Highlights and Best prospects
• Statistical Data
• Best Sales Prospects
• Competitive Analysis
• End-User Analysis
• Market Access (includes information on duties, taxes, standards etc.)
• Trade Promotion Opportunities
• Trade Publications
• Market Research Companies
• Trade Associations
• Agents, Distributors and Manufacturers

International Marketing Insights (IMI) contain industry specific information and are short, concise reports.  

For a listing of available ISAs and / or IMIs, please click here.

This information is available free of charge to all US companies. 

Welcome to the U.S. Commercial Service

The U.S. Department of Commerce is represented worldwide by the Commercial Service.  The Commercial Service supports U.S. commercial interests and assists American businesses in their export marketing efforts.

Our offices offer business counseling and a wide range of tailored services to assist American firms to identify business opportunities throughout the world. Our offices foreign companies who wish to partner with American companies in areas of distribution of American products, joint ventures, and licensing. While some services are fee-based, many are provided free of charge. We welcome you to our site and encourage you to visit other websites that are likely to be of interest to you.  To find the country of interest, please visit: http://www.buyusa.gov/home/export.html. 

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Best Prospects in the ICT Market

For further information about the Colombian market, please consult the Country Commercial Guide.

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Chambers of Commerce

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Channels of Distribution

For further information of the definitions of the channels of distribution, please click here. The following are known ICT sales channels.   They may or may not be available in all markets.

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Agents / Distributors

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Business to Business (B2B)

Banks

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Newspapers

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US Subsidiaries

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E-Commerce

Internet

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Internet Service Providers

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Educational

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Governmental

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Retailers

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Telecommunications Systems Operators

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Used / Reconditioned

Please visit: http://web.ita.doc.gov/.

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VARS, ISVs, Resellers, System Integrators

ISVs

VARs

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Directories and Databases

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Duties, Tariffs & Taxes

The Andean Community is a Customs Union because the goods of its member countries circulate unimpededly throughout its territory free of duties of any sort, while imports from outside the Subregion pay a common tariff.

The Andean Customs Union has been in operation since 1995, when the Common External Tariff (CET) approved by Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela at the basic levels of 5, 10, 15 and 20 percent came into effect. Bolivia enjoys preferential treatment and only applies levels of 5 and 10 percent, while Peru did not sign that agreement.

In the Santa Cruz Declaration of January 2002, the Andean Presidents stipulated that "Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela will apply a common external tariff by December 31, 2003, at the latest.” Accordingly, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Economy and the Treasury, Foreign Trade and Agriculture of the five CAN member countries on October 14, 2002 decided on the CET that is shown in Annex I to Decision 535. On April 14, 2003, the Andean countries put the finishing touches to the agreements for the adoption of a CET, thus bringing an important stage in the integration process to an end.

For ICT specific information, please visit: http://web.ita.doc.gov/.

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General Country Information

http://www.state.gov/	US Dept of State's Background Notes
http://travel.state.gov/	US Dept of State's Consular Information Sheet
http://bogota.usembassy.gov/	US Embassy, Bogota
http://www.odci.gov/cia/	CIA Factbook
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/	US Dept. of Energy's Country Analysis Brief
http://travel.lycos.com/	Lycos guide to Colombia
http://geography.about.com/	About's guide to Colombia
http://www.colombiaemb.org	Colombian Embassy in the United States
http://www.latinworld.com/	Colombian web portal
http://www.fodors.com	Fodors is known for being the best site for travel offering hotel, restaurant reviews and their series of mini-guides to specific destinations.
http://www.georgetown.edu/	Georgetown Universities Political Database of the Americas

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Intellectual Property Rights

Colombia has been on the Special 301 "Watch List" every year since 1991.  In 2001, Colombia was included in the Special 301 "Priority Watch List" for its persistent failure to effectively protect intellectual property rights (IPR).  In 2002, USTR placed Colombia once again in the Special 301 "Priority Watch List" for the same reason.  Colombia, which is a WTO member, has ratified its Uruguay Round implementing legislation.  It is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and has negotiated to join the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties.  Colombia has ratified, but not yet fully implemented, the provisions of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs).
 
Patents and Trademarks: Colombia is a member of the Inter-American Convention for Trademark and Commercial Protection.  In 2000, Colombia ratified the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) whereby a national title-holder who submits a patent application in Colombia need not do so in other countries which are parties to the PCT.  The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce acts as the local patent and trademark office in Colombia.  This agency was given the control of the government's IPR policy, effective January 2000.  However, it suffers from inadequate financing and a large backlog of trademark and patent applications.
 
The patent régime in Colombia currently provides for a 20-year term of protection for patents and reversal of the burden of proof in cases of alleged process patent infringement.  The provisions of the decisions covering protection of trade secrets and new plant varieties are generally consistent with world-class standards for protecting intellectual property rights, and provide protection for a similar period of time.  In December 2000, the Andean Community issued Decision 486 to replace the previous patent and trademark régime, which was previously governed by Decision 344.  The new régime provides improved protection to patents, trademarks, industrial inventions, rules of origin and unlawful competition related to industrial property.  This Decision eliminates previous restrictions on biotechnology inventions, increases protection of industrial designs from eight to ten years, protects traditional knowledge of indigenous, Afro-American, or local communities, protects integrated circuit (microchip) designs, and provides improved protection for industrial secrets in accordance with the TRIPS agreement. This decision, however, still contains deficiencies in the areas of working requirements, transitional "pipeline" protection, protection from parallel imports, denial of pharmaceutical patent protection for products with multiple or dual use "active principal," and protection of confidential data submitted for non-patented pharmaceuticals and agro-chemicals.
 
Law 599 of 2000 and Decree 2591 of December 13, 2000 partially regulate Andean Community Decision 486 in Colombia and establish penalties for violations to Decision 486 regarding patents, trademarks and industrial secrets.  Resolution 210 of January 15, 2001 provides for more efficient procedures for the protection of industrial property and better information mechanisms for users.  In June 2001, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce issued Resolution 17585, which provides for compulsory license approvals to third parties, other than patent holders, in specific cases related to national emergency, public interest, national security, failure on the part of the patent holder to exploit it commercially, or patent holders' abuse of a dominant position in the market.  Resolution 17585 stipulates that license grantees must pay a monetary compensation to patent owners, which varies according to the market value of inventions, costs of production, and national and international market conditions.
 
Colombian trademark protection requires registration and use of a trademark in Colombia.  In a 1998 decree, Colombia announced that registration of a trademark must be accompanied with its use in order to prevent parallel imports.  Trademark registrations last ten years and may be renewed for successive ten-year periods.  Priority rights are granted to the first application for a trademark in another Andean Community country or in any country which grants reciprocal rights.  The Andean Community decision on patent and trademark protection also provides for protection of confidential industrial information.  Protected property includes that which is secret (not generally known or easily accessible to those who usually handle such information) and has an effective commercial value or a potential commercial value as a secret. The decision requires that the person wishing to maintain the secrecy of a product take reasonable steps to ensure that secrecy.
 
In spite of the above, U.S. pharmaceutical firms are experiencing significant losses in the Colombian market due to inadequate protection of confidential test data and the unavailability of "second use" patents.  The U.S. Government has expressed disappointment in actions taken by Colombia, on its own and through the Andean Community, to weaken data protection and prohibit "second use" patents throughout the Andean Community.  U.S. pharmaceutical firms continue to press for a range of legislative and administrative reforms.  U.S. industry has claimed that Colombia maintains a policy which lacks clarity regarding protection of industrial secrecy, and promotes unbranded pharmaceuticals at the expense of the brands typically produced by multinational companies.  Due to such pressure, in August 2002, the Colombian government issued Decree 2085, which provided stronger protection for data.  Under the decree, data presented in 2002 for health certification of pharmaceuticals would be protected for a period of three years, increasing to five years for data presented beginning in 2005.  In addition, the decree clearly states that bioequivalence and bioavailability studies would only be allowed for use in registrations after the protective period expired. This represented a major step forward in the protection of intellectual property in Colombia.
 
Copyrights: Andean Community Decision 351 on the protection of copyrights has been in effect in Colombia since January 1, 1994, and it provides a generally Bern-consistent system.  Colombia also has a modern copyright law: Law 44 of 1993.  The law extends protection for computer software to 50 years, but does not classify it as a literary work.  Law 44 and Colombia's Civil Code include some provisions for IPR enforcement, which have been used to combat infringement and protect rights. Semiconductor layout designs are not protected under Colombian law.  Colombia belongs to both the Bern and the Universal Copyright Conventions.  Additionally, both the World Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the World Performance and Phonogram Treaty (WPPT) have been ratified by the Colombian government.  WCT was ratified by Decree 565 of 2000, and WPPT was ratified by Decree 545 of 1999, and both are now in force.  These treaties raise the standards of copyright protection worldwide, particularly with respect to network-based delivery of copyrighted materials, and foster the growth of electronic commerce.
 
Colombia's new Criminal Code, which entered into effect in July 2001, includes copyright infringements as a crime, and significantly increases possible sanctions from a jail term of one-to-three years to one of three-to-five years.  The code also contains provisions on violation of technological protection measures and rights management, both key obligations of the WIPO treaty.  Additionally, the previous administration issued a directive to all government and educational institutions to respect copyrights and avoid the use or purchase of pirated printed works, software and audio/video material.  Although this campaign has resulted in increased enforcement efforts by Colombian law enforcement agencies, piracy levels in Colombia exceed half the legitimate market in almost all the copyright sectors.  Even with a significant increase in the number of criminal raids in recent years, the Colombian system does not result in deterrent penalties or criminal sentences.  The Colombian judicial system remains a serious obstacle to effective enforcement.
 
The piracy rate for business software still reflects an unacceptably high incidence of illegal software use in Colombia, particularly within small to medium-sized organizations.  Estimated trade losses due to business software piracy are $16.2 million in 2002, with an estimated 50 percent piracy level.  The educational and legal campaign of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), combined with only modest growth in the legitimate market, resulted in a reduction in the piracy rate and estimated losses in Colombia in 2002, compared to the prior year.  The recording industry reported that in 2002, the estimated level of audio piracy rose to 65 percent, with estimated losses due to piracy placed at $56.3 million.  Piracy of music CDs in Colombia continues to increase, mostly due to local CD-R replication.  As a result of poor enforcement efforts, the legitimate audio market decreased by 22 percent in 2002. This declining trend is likely to continue in 2003.  Estimated trade losses due to book piracy remained at $5.3 million in 2002.  Commercial piracy has declined somewhat in this sector because of enforcement actions.  However, currently there is no enforcement against photocopy shops located outside or inside universities, where entire books are reproduced without authorization.
 
The audiovisual industry faces two forms of piracy in Colombia: Television signal theft and video piracy.  The Motion Picture Association of America (MPA) reports that both are prevalent and seriously threat the legitimate market.  At least 90 percent of the video market is pirate.  In fact, some audiovisual producers have abandoned the market, despite the country's potential.  The MPA has continued to fight television signal theft piracy.  The situation has improved somewhat since cable operators who received licenses in 1999-2000 have now legalized their signals.  However, there are still uncounted, small unlicensed operators in remote areas, who often use gray market decoders to descramble U.S. signals and then distribute them illegally.  Annual losses to the U.S. motion picture industry due to audiovisual piracy in Colombia were estimated to be $40 million in 2002.    
 
Although, the Colombian Administrative Department of Security (DAS) and other law enforcement agencies performed over 1,500 anti-piracy operations in 2002, counterfeit merchandise is still broadly available in the Colombian market, significantly affecting U.S. industries, which continue to lose substantial revenue--$177.2 million in 2000, $137.8 million in 2001, and $117.8 million in 2002 according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA).

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Market Research

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Search Engines

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Technical Standards

None Noted

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Trade Associations

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Trade Publications

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Trade Shows, Exhibitions and Seminars

Additional information on how to prepare for and select an international trade show can be found at http://www.exportmichigan.biz/. 

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Telecommunications Equipment

http://www.intracen.org/

User Groups

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E-Mail Links to the Respective Industry Specialist(s)

Mr. Julio Acero, Trade Reference Assistant

Phone: +57 1 383 2635 & +57 1 315 2126 & +57 1 315 2298

Fax: +57 1 315 2171 & 57 1 315 2190

E-mail address: julio.acero@mail.doc.gov

Industries: Computer Services, Computer Software, Computers/Peripherals

Ms. Maria Teresa Pena, Commercial Specialist

CONTACT INFORMATION

Telephone: 57-1-315-2126 or 315-2298 or 383-2796
Facsimile: 57-1-315-2171 or 315-2190 
E-mail address: Maria.Teresa.Pena@mail.doc.gov 
Industry Sectors: Computer Services (CSV), Computer Software (CSF), Computers/Peripherals (CPT), Electronic Components (ELC), Information Services (INF), Telecommunications Eq. (TEL), Telecommunications Services (TES) 

OFFICE INFORMATION

STREET ADDRESS

American Embassy

Calle 22D Bis No. 47-51

Bogota, Colombia,

Colombia

U.S. MAILING ADDRESS

American Embassy - Bogota

U.S. Embassy, FCS Colombia

Unit 5120, APO AA 34038

 

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Revised: November 24, 2008

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