With the support of one of the oldest and largest general practice law firms in Chile behind it, the IP department of Claro y Cia was noted by rivals as a solid shop with particular strength in trade mark contentious work. "It has good clients," said one competitor. "I think its advantage is clearly in general practice, especially litigation," he added.
Because of the Claro's full service background, partners say it can react rapidly to short notice assignments even when a large volume of work is involved. The firm, which was founded in 1880, represents household names such as Coca-Cola, Apple, Starbucks, British-American Tobacco and Goodyear. Practitioners Felipe Claro, Paulina Bardón and Claus Krebs are working on an amendment to the industrial property law. Claro, who leads the IP group, is a former director of the Chilean Industrial Property Association (ACHIPI) and is coordinating the organisation's patent amendment proposals. Bardón is the secretary of the trade mark amendment task force. Claro y Cia provided legal advice during the 2010 merger between two of Latin America's largest airlines, Chile's LAN Airlines and Brazil's TAM, which subsequently became the LATAM Airlines Group.