IP is a common interest among BRIC countries

Last week the Brazilian Instituto Nacional da Propiedade Industrial (INPI) received leaders from the Chinese patent office (SIPO) and thus, consolidating a partnership which "can trace an outline of common interests among the BRIC countries" [aren’t we suppose to call this bloc the BRICS- now that South Africa has joined?]. In the agenda was, among other matters, “the expansion of technological cooperation agreement between the countries and encourage new forms of decentralization and the use of intellectual property in states and municipalities.”

INPI informs that the partnership between INPI and SIPO was consolidated in 2012 and was focused primarily on the training of patent examiners (three examiners of INPI have been trained in Beijing, China). They are now looking to extend the practice to the academic field, and thus, there is interest in establishing an interaction between universities and master's and doctoral programs. According to INPI, the aim is to develop research projects and international publications on innovation in the area of aviation.

Also, Brazilians have an interest in strengthening ties with China Intellectual Property Training Center (CIPTC) as well as to initiate a “pilot project examining patent shared via e-PCT (i.e. online services)”. SIPO will also send to INPI a model based on a contract established between the Chinese Training Center and the John Marshall Law School, Chicago [uh? replicating the Chinese model, which is a copy of the American model?! Well I guess the Chinese adapted it to their needs, right? …I wonder: what does the John Marshall Institute have to say about this?].