Promotion of Intellectual Property in Brazil

Academia
The Federal University of Sergipe has structured a laboratory for the development and research of intellectual property. The goal is to train students in the areas of technological forecasting, innovative entrepreneurship and business intelligence.

The laboratory activities are divided into ten hours to discuss theoretical issues and twenty hours for lab’s practice. The course topics include: innovation and invention; procedure for granting patents; and competitive strategy of enterprises by means of IP, among others.

According to Professor Carlos Alberto da Silva, coordinator of the lab, 40 students were trained in the first half of 2010. For the second half, another 30 students are enrolled.

More academic circles and Agreements
The Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI) and Eletrobras (Brazilian Electric Power Company) signed a technical cooperation agreement with the main objective of disseminating IP, through courses and seminars on the strategic use of IP by industry.

On August 13 there will be the first activity of the partnership, the seminar: "IP as a strategic tool for fostering innovation, dedicated to the public inside the company.

The Technical Cooperation Agreements promoted by the INPI in partnership with other institutions are the responsibility of DART (Diretoria de Articulação e Informação Tecnológica - Department of Organization and Information Technology), whose function is to promote and disseminate and train in IP. It also places the INPI in the national and the international scene.