ENGLAND FINDS ITS WAY IN BRAZIL: CLOSER TIES

It seems that the English has found again its way into the Brazilian market. After assisting Rio de Janeiro to be a host city for the Olympic Games in 2016, against strong competitors like Chicago and Madrid, and the recent successful Paul McCartney Tour in the city of São Paulo, the representatives of the United Kingdom Industrial Property Office (UKIPO) arrived in the city of Rio de Janeiro for a good mission: participate in the “INPI UKIPO Collaborative Agreements Workshop” on November 17 and 18.

Such Workshop aimed to present and discuss the Lambert Toolkit , which was developed in the United Kingdom to foster and facilitate university and business technological collaborations. This tool follows five basic models of research collaboration agreements that cover common scenarios in collaborative negotiations. It was presented to the Brazilians as an instrument to speed up negotiations and resume satisfactorily agreements involving universities, public research centers and companies.

This Toolkit was very much welcomed in view of the existing scenario pro innovation in Brazil, mainly set out by the Innovation Law (Law 10,973/2004). Nowadays, most of the restrictions to joint collaboration (universities and companies) were phased out and the property on an invention developed under such agreements does not belong necessarily to the university. Further to that, financing, subsidies and grants are secured to those who produce innovation.

The Workshop was very well attended by local companies such as PETROBRAS, EMBRAPA and the renowned University of Campinas, the University of São Paulo, the Federal University of Santa Catarina, the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, among others.

The leaders of the Workshop were composed of 2 representatives of INPI (Mrs. Lia de Medeiros and Mr. Júlio Castelo Branco), 1 representative of the UKIPO (Mrs. Nancy Pignataro) and the attorneys Christine Reid (Northwood Reid Partners), Charlotte Crowhurst (Potter Clarkson LLP), Evelyn Montellano (Meyer Brown) and José Carlos Vaz e Dias (Di Blasi, Parente, Vaz e Dias Advogados & Associados).

After the success of the Workshop, the intention of INPI and UKIPO is to organize 2 road shows to evidence that Brazil has more than coffee, bananas and football. The UK seems to be very interested in the local innovations. Therefore, a road show will take place in London next year for those Brazilian companies and universities keen on showing their technical developments and seeking partnership. Afterwards, the show will be in Rio de Janeiro for the English.