Paraguay: news with no news

Paraguay: news with no news

Patricia Covarrubia   June 27, 2022   No comments:

From the Paraguayan IPO I read the news about the Mercosur – Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Last week, the 6th round of negotiations seemed to end with some consensus on the matter of intellectual property, covering trade marks, patents, design, traditional knowledge and geographical indications. The meeting took place online and was led by the coordinator of the IP section Juan Esteban Aguirre, who is the Director of the International relations at DINAPI (Dirección Nacional de Propiedad Intelectual – that is, Paraguay national IP).

Previous round covered: access to the goods market, rules of origin, commercial defense, technical barriers to trade, investment, electronic commerce, services, telecommunications, government procurement and institutional aspects, trade in services, public purchases, and electronic commerce. The Foreign Trade Information System (SICE) publishes all documents relating to the negotiations, but it has not been updated (last doc is the 4th table of negotiation - April 2022). 

MERCOSUR is a trade bloc in South America (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay – Venezuela was suspended in 2017) and represents the 5th world economy. The largest exports from MERCOSUR in 2022 is to China (USD$ 31,532 M); same with imports.

In 2019, MERCOSUR concluded FTA with the EU (more info here). An FTA cut hassle involved in exporting and importing goods and services, could it be by the reduction or removal of custom duties and or simplifying custom procedures. 

Some FACTS on IP 

All FIVE countries are members of the WTO and consequently have incorporated the TRIPS agreement into their national legislation – minimum standard of IP. 

• Madrid System (trade mark international register): Brazil and Singapore are members 
• Hague System (design international register): Singapore is a contracting party 
• Patent Cooperation Treaty (patent international register): Brazil and Singapore are members 

Good to know – Brazil 

The Brazilian IPO may challenge clauses establishing that improvements developed by the licensor may only be used by the Brazilian company upon the execution of a new agreement. Law No. 4,131/1962 regulates foreign capital in Brazil .

INPI assessment and approval of Technology Transfer and IP licensing agreement are mandatory for the purposes of: 

• authorizing remittance of royalties to foreign licensor, grantor of IPRs recognized in Brazil; 
• trigger tax deductibility by the Brazilian party of amounts paid in connection with IP license, acquisition; and 
• entitle the Brazilian party to enforce licensed, granted IP rights.

Other IP facts in Brazil:

• INPI neither annotate agreements nor issue certificate of registration for the license of non-patented proprietary technological knowledge. 
• INPI does not accept ‘technology’ licenses and establishes that the technology is permanently transferred to the Brazilian recipient. 
• Software agreement registration is not required unless it involves the transfer of source code and know-how. 

For more information in Latin America, have a look at the vast information hold at Latin America IP SMEs Helpdesk here.

Source DINAPI.

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The EU and Ecuador – taking more time for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA)?

The EU and Ecuador – taking more time for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA)?

Patricia Covarrubia   June 17, 2010   No comments:

The three days of talks between representatives of Ecuador and the EU arrived to an end - re: FTA. Yesterday was the last meeting and the conclusion was...well, according to the El Comercio newspaper, “there was no definition or resumption of negotiations between both parties.”

The EU head negotiator, Gaspar Frontini, said that there were some sensitive matters that found clarification, but there were others that need to continue exchanging information. This, he continues, will be done throughout the month of July.

As mentioned in an early post, in a previous meeting there were three themes that were classified as sensitive: intellectual property, government procurement and services. Yet, the director for Latin America at the EU Commission, Gustavo Martín Prada, said that there are no points that may be unworkable.

Gaspar Frontini and Mr Prada met yesterday with the Ecuadorian media where they explained that “the dialogue of these three days have been constructive and satisfactory”.

What lies ahead? According to the note, the Ecuadorian President and the authorities of the EU need to analyse what has been said in these meetings. Then, as mentioned they will continue to discuss whether they will start with the negotiations (I suppose this is something like negotiating if they are going to negotiate??).

I would like to finish today with the Doris Day lyrics, and please I am not intending to be ironic or sarcastic, but I just felt that the negotiation sound very much like the song:
“Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.”

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