Welcome to our blog for Intellectual Property Law and Practice in Latin America!
¡Bienvenidos a nuestro blog de Derecho y Práctica de la Propiedad Intelectual en Latinoamérica!
Bem-vindo ao nosso blog sobre Direito e Prática de Propriedade Intelectual na América Latina!

Thursday 29 October 2015

Patricia Covarrubia

Peru: speeding up and cooperating

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From October 5 to October 14, 2015 took place the Assemblies of the Member States of WIPO: Fifty-Fifth Series of Meetings (Geneva, Switzerland).

At the meeting the Peruvian National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) signed three international cooperation agreements on intellectual property with European institutions in order to promote and increase the use of industrial property system and the protection of it.

The Agreements
Image result for sign1. - Memorandum of Understanding with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) to establish an accelerated patent procedure i.e. Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH).
Indecopi reports that this agreement is important since it will “increase efficiency in the process of patent applications, thus advancing towards a further reduction in processing time for them.” Currently the procedure is done in 36 months. Moreover, there exist the “possibility that the Peruvian inventors obtain a faster and exclusivity protection of their inventions in Spain” and giving an opportunity to enter their products to the rest of the European market.

2.- An institutional Cooperation Agreement signed with the National Institute of Industrial Property of France (INPI), in order to create mechanisms of collaboration and support for Peru on intellectual property.

3.- Memorandum of Understanding with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) of the European Union was signed, to join efforts and achieve greater efficiency in the protection of rights under trade marks and design rights.


Source Indecopi.
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Wednesday 28 October 2015

Patricia Covarrubia

Reforming Paten Law: the debate continues

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On 20th October, the Associação Brasileira da Propriedade Intelectual (ABPI)’s president spoke at a public hearing at the Comissão de Constituição e Justiça e Cidadania (Committee on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship) of the House of Representatives. In the speech it was clear that the ABPI opposed to reform to be brought by Bill 139/1999 and 5402/13 due to these not having sufficient technical analysis and without the necessary analysis discussions with parties involved such as the pharma industry and researchers. The proposed changes are according to ABPI, substantial changes to Brazilian Patent Law N. 9279 of 14 May 1996 (Law 9279/96).

What is going on?
Image result for tanguera
What my mum think I do!
On 4th October our tanguera and Brazilian friend Magda Voltolini, wrote a guest post on the topic ‘Brazilian Politicians will vote for new Pharma Laws’. Here she notes that the Bill aims to modify “the provisions concerning rights awarded by the patent and conditions that grant compulsory licenses including those relating to pharmaceutical products and processes.” (full post here).

ABPI’s position
ABPI’s opposing to the reforms, points out the “technical failures of each of the ten amendments proposed in the Bills that, if approved, will impact negatively on the country's economy on innovative initiatives and investments in R & D”.

Rebutting allegations of patent abuse, ABPI’s president noted that the present Law already contains safeguards against abuses by patent. She pointed out that in Brazil there exist a misunderstanding with the term ‘extension’ referring to the term of patents, noting that ‘extension’ is an act of public administration, and “only granted when there is a fulfilment of all legal requirements”. Finally, she emphasized that any debate on patent should always be aimed at the modernization of IP infrastructure and R & D.

Source ABPI.
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Monday 26 October 2015

Patricia Covarrubia

Rural areas receive a boost

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Promoting agricultural products in rural and remote areas of the country to a more competitive market is a matter that the Peruvian National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) is looking at. In this regards, in October Indecopi granted a collective mark to ‘Agro Rural’.

Image result for De la chacra a la olla
The collective mark ‘De la chacra a la olla’ (‘from the farm to the pot’) is a service mark. This type of mark “will help to promote and position among farmers, the exhibition and sale of their products to the public.” said Indecopi. The use of collective marks also help to organize farmers which are placed in rural and remote areas.

According to Indecopi, the mark was a cooperation agreement between Indecopi and Agro Rural “in which assistance is provided to farmers for the registration of collective marks” and, which will help to “develop the economic growth of their communities.”

Agro Rural is an agricultural production development programme attached to the Vice-Ministry of Agriculture and aims to “promote rural agricultural development through the financing of public investment projects in rural areas of less economic development.” This year it has made 25 exhibitions, commercializing more than half a million Peruvian soles (153,080.56 USD) and attracting the participation of more than 600 farmers.

Source Indecopi.
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