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¡Bienvenidos a nuestro blog de Derecho y Práctica de la Propiedad Intelectual en Latinoamérica!
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Monday 11 January 2010

José Carlos Vaz e Dias

INPI is Called Upon to Assist the Fight Against Piracy in Brazil


Since December 21, 2009 the Summer vacation and its festivities have begun in the Brazilian territory. All the free time, empowered by the 13rd. salary set out by the Brazilian labour legislation, has been encouraging a great deal of the Brazilian population to, more than ever, go shopping and leave on vacation to the several touristic spots.

Shop keepers and hotel owners praise for this moment, but so do the pirates. Their expectation to profit has led local pirates to highly increase the importation of counterfeit products from China since September 2009. How does one know this information? Well, the pirates do not tend to keep their activities on low profile. The display of pirate goods at the famous stores in the city of São Paulo so-called Galleria Pagé and 25 de Março Mall have been noticeable. Further to that, the customs authorities confirmed that the seizure of vessels with piracy has doubled during this period.

Being aware of the piracy wave, the Federation of the Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP) and the Brazilian National Forum Against Piracy (http://www.forumcontrapirataria.com.br/) have organized a training program in mid-December to 100 employees of the Federal Revenue Agency (customs authorities) who monitor the inflow of imported goods into Brazil. Such training will be further carried on throughout 2010, due to its success and to the urgency to protect the Brazilian industries.

One has to take into account that the customs authorities have less than 7 seconds to confirm in a very small cargo whether the imported products are pirate or originals, and no more than 5 minute to view a container of 40 meters full of products.

Therefore, the adequate support to the authorities is of relevance and the interest of FIESP in such training is evident, since it represents more than 150.000 industries of all sizes, part of them affected by piracy

Besides training how to distinguish pirate products, FIESP has called upon the presence of the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) to teach IP rights to the authorities who have very little knowledge on patents, trademarks and copyrights.

Moreover, Brazil does not hold a trademark registration at the customs, as it does in Argentina and Paraguay. Therefore, customs authorities need to learn how to gather trademark information on INPI’s database and also off those records, as INPI’s backlog of work hinders the input of updated information.

In conclusion, we may say that although the summer vacation and the shopping boost have shown themselves favourable to pirates, there are relevant measures being taken to effectively reduce pirate commerce, as one may hope.

José Carlos Vaz e Dias

José Carlos Vaz e Dias