The National Industrial Property Office (Onapi) has attributed the increase in requests for new brand and trade name registrations to government policies that favor small business. The office says that on average ONAPI has received a 10% increase in trade names and brands, but for the January-August 2013 period the number of requests was up 14.27% compared to the same period last year.
Requests for the first nine months in 2012 were 14,391 and for January-August 2013 this year they totaled 16,786.
Department director Juan Jose Baez says that this is evidence that more micro and small-scale businesses are formalizing their operations, as reported in El Caribe.