B&R Patents & Trademarks in Latin America

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Office of the United States Trade Representative has released it’s 2012 Special 301 Report.

This document is an annual review of the state of intellectual property rights, protection and enforcement in trading partners around the world. This report is a valuable guide to understand current issues in IP Law and to highlight positive and negative trends on emerging markets.

The report creates a list of priority issues on IP. This year’s  report has mentioned Capacity Building Efforts, focusing on the lack of prosecution and conviction on the ground of IP infringements. The ever growing trends in Trademark Counterfeiting and Copyright Piracy, warning that the markets of pirated and counterfeit goods will soon surpass the sales volume of the licit vendors, and commenting on new ways for transportation and selling of counterfeit products such as the separate shipping of labels and packaging in order to evade enforcement efforts. Piracy over the internet, demanding stronger actions to strengthen legal regimes and enhance enforcement in order to respond to the increased availability of broadband internet connections and the piracy in new mobile devices. The violation of trade secrets and forced technology transfer, expressing the dangers of trade-distortive policies designed to promote ‘indigenous innovation’ through the lack of enforcement of IP rights and the creating of market barriers based on IP disclosures laws. Finally, the report also highlights the government use of software, trademarks and DNS, implementation of WTO TRIPS agreements, WIPO treaties and issues on IP and health policy.

However, this report is notorious for it’s Country Reports, in which US trading partners are sorted into the “Priority Watch List” and the “Watch List”, depending on their progress on IP issues and the vulnerability for US’s IP rights owners in their markets.

As to Latin American countries, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela were listed on the Priority Watch List, alongside Ukraine, Thailand, China and India. Concerns on these countries include inefficiency in Argentina’s judicial system, lack of protection against unfair commercial use and growing copyright piracy on the internet; Chile’s inefficient system for addressing patent issues for pharmaceutical products, unfair commercial use, and to fulfill it’s commitments  under the US-Chile FTA; and Venezuela’s withdrawal from the Andean Community in 2006, and widespread piracy and counterfeiting.

On the watch list, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru are said to have progressed in protecting IP Rights, but issues on enforcement and internet piracy remain largely neglected.

Read the Full Report here.

March 26, 2012. The past days, the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced the accreditation of a Chilean entity as an International Depositary Authority for Microorganisms: the Colección Chilena de Recursos Genéticos Microbianos (The Chilean Collection of Microbial Genetic Resources CChRGM) belonging to INIA, a private law, non-profitmaking corporation, attached to the Ministry of Agriculture. “the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presents his compliments to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and has the honor to notify the receipt of the adquisition from the Government of the Republic of Chile.”

In this mention is important stand out the work done by the Agricultural Research Institute (INIA) and the National Industrial Property Institute (INAPI)

This acquisition of the status of International Depositary Authority is made through the application of the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure, subscribed by the chilean government in may 5, 2011,and entered into force in august 5, 2011 “pursuant to Article 7(2)(b), the Colección Chilena de Recursos Genéticos Microbianos (CChRGM) shall acquire the status of International Depositary Authority under the Budapest Treaty on March 26, 2012.”

To see the complete Notification: http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/notifications/budapest/treaty_budapest_283.html

according to the INAPI, CHILE REACHES ONE MILLION TRADEMARK APPLICATIONS

With the filing of the application for registration of the trademark “OMNIDANZ” by National Real Estate Commercial & SA to protect the service academy education, cultural and recreational sports, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI) reached one million trademark applications.
For the National Director of INAPI, Maximiliano Santa Cruz, reach one million applications filed “shows the interest that exists in our country for industrial property rights.”
During 2011, 35,866 new applications were presented, showing an increase of 12% compared to 2010. The total in 2011 was higher than 51 000, by adding registered trademark renewals.
This growth is accord with the latest report of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) called “World Intellectual Property Indicators 2011″, in which Chile has one of the highest level of applications for trademarks in Latin America. http://www.brlatina.com/chile-leader-trademark-registration/

In the last two years in Chile has been a clear increase in the filing of trademark applications, thanks to the modernization of the INAPI (changes of the platform, the digitization of all the presentations made before the Institute and the news tools online.)

Chile: the Chilean government studies the possibility of make a change to the Law No. 19.039 on Industrial Property.

The Chilean government trough the Ministry of economy, development and tourism, and the sub secretarial of economics and small business, the past days, has issued the possible amend to the Law No. 19.039 on Industrial Property (Consolidated Text by Decree-Law No. 3).
The Proposal text amend pretends to harmonize the Chilean legislation with the Trademark Law Treaty (TLT), ratified by the country and published in the Official Gazette on August 5, 2011 (Accession, may 5, 2011 and entry into force August 5, 2011) and the patent cooperation treaty( in 2009 Chile became the 140th contracting state of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) when it deposited its instrument of accession at WIPO on March 2 and the teatry enter into force for Chile on June 2, 2009.).
In general terms the amend 1) extends the protection to the intellectual property rights, throught the creation of new categories 2) improves protection tools and 3) expedites the procedure for the obtainment of an Industrial Privilege in trademark and patents, essentially through the limitation of the unnecessary procedural stages.
The minister of economy Pablo Longueira and the director of The National Institute of Intellectual Property (INAPI), Maximiliano Santa Cruz, consider that it is necessary a new law to attract investments, generate more jobs, and spur additional research and development.
Since March 09, and until March 29, 2012 it is available also, in the web site of the Ministry of economy, development and tourism, a general consult to the interested person who want participate in the creation of the new law.
To read the amend text (only in spanish), it is available in:

http://www.inapi.cl/images/stories/Documentos/aplicac-normativa/Ley-20569.pdf

To view or participate in the consult, this is the link http://consultaciudadana.economia.cl/

The WIPO: International Patent Filings Set New Record in 2011

The past days (March, 5, 2012) was published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) its annual audit of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) filings from the last year. The principal date gave with this publication it is related with the growth of the volume of applications filed in the last year, that represents an increase of 10.7% over 2010 and the most important growth rate since 2005. “International patent filings under the WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) set a new record in 2011 with 181,900 applications – a growth of 10.7“

The fastest growth in PCT applications are from China (+33.4%), Japan (+21%), Canada (+8.3%), the Republic of Korea (+8%) and the US (+8%). The United States remained the top PCT filer with 48,596 applications, but also there are a significant increases in applications originating from Japan and China (Japan and China filed 38,888 and 16,406 applications in 2011, respectively)

In Latin America the leader is Brazil with a 17.2% growth, but also have an important growth, countries like Mexico and Chile. In the next Graphic, we can see the international applications in latin American countries.

INTERNATIONAL APPLICATIONS BY LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES
Source: B&R Latina::Trademarks & Patents, elaborated with WIPO information

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), it is an international system for seeking patents on a global scale. This system was adopted through the subscription of a treaty done at Washington on June 19 of 1970 . Actually 144 countries belong to the union according to the WIPO publication of the World Intellectual Property Indicators . Between these States, we can found different Latin-American countries: like Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

The studied of the statistics available in the Wipos website can us say that since 2005, the sum of the number of PCT applications filed by this developing countries and transition economies has been increasing annually.

The past February 6 of 2012 In Chile have been issued the Law N° 20.569 that amends the industrial property law No. 19.039 whit the purpose of standardize and make better the patents application and trademark registration procedure.

The main changes to take into account are related with the formality requirement for the power of attorney. Before of this act the POA was to be signed at the Chilean Consulate in the applicant’s country, or with Apostille, if the country was part of the Hague Apostille Convention. But now it is not necessary to be legalized before a Consulate, it is only necessary that The POA is signed by the legal representative of society, if this is the applicant, or the individual.

This disposition was adopted acording with the Trademark Law Treaty, signed by Chile in August 5, 2011.

To view the complete Law: http://www.leychile.cl/Navegar?idNorma=1036995