Obligado & Cia was established in 1889 and has been a respected presence in Buenos Aires ever since. Clients include industry leaders such as Colgate, Sanofi-Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Kraft Foods and Boehringer Ingelheim. The firm is frequently consulted by the EU market access team in Argentina.
Clients were enthusiastic about results they had achieved with Obligado. "They do not think as agents just giving messages on objections or observations, but offer recommendations and give us quite updated resolutions," said one client. Another patron remarked: "The two principal partners have proposed very creative solutions to our problem with the patent backlog from the patent office. For example, there's a procedure called a fast track which allows you to change the order of the applications. That kind of creative work is rarely found in agents in Argentina."
The firm achieved a landmark victory for Sanofi-Aventis, successfully obtaining the only pharmaceutical patent injunction issued in the Argentine courts in 2009. Opponent Sandoz Argentina won a preliminary injunction and the recall of the products. In 2010 the temporary order was upheld by the Chamber of Appeals. The temporary injunction was the first of its kind that has been confirmed after the enactment of new laws on patent injunctions.
The firm also recovered the Eclipse brand for Argentine company Bodegas Chandon, part of the Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton group. Obligado also represented France Champagne, which is part of Moët Hennessy and was also included in the action. Sanes, a provider of grapes for Bodegas Chandon, had registered Eclipse as a trade mark. Sanes then tried to block exports of products bearing the mark and filed oppositions, civil and criminal suits against Obligado's clients. However, the court concluded that the Eclipse mark had been registered in bad faith and cancelled it, acquitting Bodegas Chandon of any wrongdoing.