On October 24, 2013, Act No. 19149 was passed in Uruguay, which, among other provisions, in its section 187, modifies section 19 of the Trademarks Act No. 17011 that established that the use of a trademark was optional, replacing it with the mandatory use requirement, as follows:

Section 187- Act No.° 19149
Section 19 of Act No. ° 17011, of September 25, 1998, shall be replaced by the following:

SECTION 19.-
Use of a registered trademark is mandatory.

The registration of a trademark may be cancelled when:

A) the mark has not been used by its owner, a licensee or an authorized person, within five consecutive years as from its granting date or by the time the registration is due for renewal.

B) said use has been interrupted for more than five consecutive years.

A registration shall not be cancelled when its owner proves that the lack of use was due to force majeure.

A third party with a direct, personal and legitimate interest may request the cancellation of a registered trademark when the situation established in subsections A) and B) above occurs. The National Board of Industrial Property shall issue a decision in such action.

The use of the mark for one or more goods or services shall exempt the respective registration in other categories of goods or services from cancellation, even if such categories are not similar.

The burden of the proof falls on the owner of the registration.

The use of the mark shall be proved by any means accepted by law, provided that it shows that the mark has been publicly and effectively used within the statutory term.

Evidence of use of the mark shall not be required in order to renew a registration.

We will have to wait until the regulation of this act is enacted in order to learn its actual scope and impact of those trademarks that have already been granted, of which we will keep you updated once such conditions and formalities for the use required by this norm as well as the proceeding for the cancellation action are known.