When Time Shall Be No More: long delays in patent examinations

After the good news from the Brazilian Instituto Nacional da Propriedad Industrial (INPI) on the IP filing boom (reported here) we now hear the news that INPI is managing to reduce the average time for patent examinations. It reports that in 2006 the average was 11.6 years; in 2007 7.3yrs; in 2008 10.4yrs; in 2009 10.3yrs; in 2010 was reduced to 8.3yrs and finally in 2011 to a whooping 5.4yrs.

The expectations:

A proper RIO jump!!

INPI informs that as “the demand for patents is growing, it is also necessary to expand the ability of INPI by hiring more examiners”. The estimates is to increase its staff of experts by 130% to achieve by 2015 examining patents in four years, as provided in the ‘Plano Brasil Maior’ (the Plan ‘Greater Brazil’).

According to INPI, the results achieved were due to three factors: the modernization of patent offices, archiving processes that were without pay, and recruitment.

Also INPI remembers that this year 2012 e-patents will be launched (patent filing via Internet). International standards for patent examination usually take three to four years (when you apply and when patent is granted). Brazil is getting there.

Source INPI.

Paper: The chilean Unfair Competition Act

The unfair competition (family of trademark law system) in Chile is regulated through the Unfair Competition Act number 20.169 published in 2007 amended by Small and Medium-Sized Entities Act number 20.416 (2010). This legal text has been redacted in only ten sections, and the core of its regulation subject matter is defined in a general provision as, “[an] act of unfair competition is any act against good faith or good costumes which, by illegitimate means, is carried out with the purpose of diverting the clientele of a market agent”(art.3). 

Aimed to analyze it in order to pose his critical standpoint about this law, chilean lawyer and researcher Fernando Fernández (www.icdt.cl) wrote an interesting paper that is now shared in our blog, called "The chilean Unfair Competition Act: A critical analysis" available full text (PDF) for our readers. Thanks for his gentleness we may enjoy it.

Congreso Nacional de Chile aprueba reforma a Ley de Propiedad Industrial

Antes del receso legislativo ha quedado concluida, en el Congreso Nacional chileno, la tramitación  del Proyecto de Ley destinado a modificar el decreto con fuerza de ley N° 3, de 2006, del Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Reconstrucción, hoy Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo, que fija el texto refundido, coordinado y sistematizado de la ley Nº 19.039, de Propiedad Industrial, con el objeto de adecuar la legislación interna a los tratados internacionales suscritos por Chile en materia de Propiedad Industrial, tales como el Tratado de Cooperación en materia de Patentes (PCT) y el Tratado sobre el Derecho de Marcas (TLT).

Mediante oficio del 19 de enero de 2012 el Congreso Nacional ha comunicado al Presidente de la República la aprobación de texto final del Proyecto de iniciativa del Ejecutivo, cuyas etapas y contenido han sido comentadas en anteriores entradas de este blog. El texto completo del Proyecto -con un artículo único reformatorio-, aprobado para su promulgación, está disponible en internet, así como un interesante comentario sobre su contenido. 

Fuente: www.senado.cl

Colombia commits as TLT hits 50

Here's some good news for trade mark owners and their professional representatives: by TLT Notification No. 56, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has informed the world that the Government of the Republic of Colombia last week deposited its instrument of accession to the Trademark Law Treaty. The TLT will enter into force for Colombia on 13 April 2012.

This will bring the number of active participants in the TLT to a nice round 50. The region's participation in the TLT is growing: Colombia joins Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru -- but there's still no commitment from the regional superpowers.

Data Protection: Chile gives the thumbs up

This week the Chilean ‘Cámara de Diputados’ (House of Representatives) approved the amendments made by the Senate in relation to the bill that reinforces the principle of specified and lawful purposes in processing of personal data. The law is known as ‘Dicom’.

The ‘ley Dicom’ (Law 19812) was published on June 2002 amending the law known as ‘Personal Data Protection’ (Law 19628). One of the changes promoted at the time were based in the handling of financial and commercial data. The new amendment also focuses on the treatment given to financial data and thus, the bill emphasises the fact that economic personal data hold shall be used only for the specific purposes for which it was collected, namely for commercial risk assessments and credit purposes.

It is therefore established that under no circumstances this information (financial data) may be required and/or used for staff selection, admission to schools, higher education, emergency medical care or nomination for a State office.

The note publishes by the Camara de Diputados here, continues saying that “those responsible for data records and distributor of records shall, in the development of its business, apply the principles of legitimacy, access, opposition, data quality, purpose, proportionality, transparency, non- discrimination, restrictions on use and safety in the processing of personal data." They must have a registration system indentifying the name of the person who is requesting the data, registering date and time, and who is the person responsible for the delivery of such data. They must also designate a person in charge, so that data owners can go to him to enforce their rights.

Violations of this law shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Law 19628 on the Protection of Right to Privacy.

Now the bill has completed its passage through Congress and has been sent to the Executive for promulgation.

The whole legislative process can be seen here.