IPTango

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Brazilian Copyright Law for public consultation - new deadline

Patricia Covarrubia July 27, 2010 No comments:

The public consultation for the reform of the Copyright Act will be open until August the 31st. The initial period of 45 days will end on July 28 and this was extended to expand the opportunity for participation.

Since June 14th there has been more than 1200 contributions submitted. According to the Ministry of Culture, the most addressed issues are: Article 1 which deals with the purpose of the Act; Article 41 which deals with the economic rights time limit; and Article 46, regarding the limitations to copyright.

Therefore, the Ministry of Culture Mr Jesus Ferreira believes that this new deadline will allow bigger participation. "We chose consulting because we believe it will help the government improve the text. We see this tool as a continuation of a democratic process that began almost eight years and has involved all interested parties, he said.

At the end of the consultation, the text will be redrafted based on the proposals. There is no deadline for the Executive to submit the project to the Congress.

Brazil discusses patentability of medicines

Patricia Covarrubia July 26, 2010 2 comments:

On the 23th of July, the Brazilian Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI) opened a debate regarding the criteria of patentability in the field of medicines. The meeting was attended by ALANAC (National Association of Pharmaceutical Laboratories), ABIFINA (Brazilian Association of Industries of Fine Chemistry, Biotechnology and their Specialties), FIOCRUZ (Institution for Research and Development in Biomedical Sciences – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and UFRJ (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro ). Also, representatives of national laboratories attended the debate.

Let’s wait and see if something comes out from this debate.

Good news from Brazil

Patricia Covarrubia July 24, 2010 No comments:

On July 16th, the Instituto Nacional da Propiedade Industrial (INPI) of Brazil launched the system Push-INPI. This system also employed in various Brazilian courts, is used to facilitate the monitoring of processes. Users will utilize a login and password, already registered in the e-INPI, and will register the processes that wish to track. After this, users will start receiving at their e-mail address the changes in processes, including dates and orders. Also, the full contents will be accessed via the Internet at Revista Eletrônica da Propriedade Industrial (RPI).

The other good news that comes from Brazil is for those wishing to apply for Geographical Indication. One of the requirements for registration is that of the delimitation of the area. Now it is possible to do so through online databases and with approval from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). With this objective, the IBGE is training specialists in the area of Geographical Indications at INPI to make them familiar with the system and to guide users. By using data from the IBGE, the division will be more accurate and users can check if a given territory has a special area, indigenous lands and facilities for environmental preservation.

Free software – the International Forum

Patricia Covarrubia July 21, 2010 No comments:

Since 2000, the International Free Software Forum (FISL) gives participants a political discussion, social and technical advice on free software. The official opening of the 11th International Free Software Forum will run on July 21st through July 24th 2010 in Porto Alegre, Brazil.This event is considered the largest gathering of open source communities in Latin America and one of the world largest.

The forum launches its 11th edition combining lectures, discussions and news about open source software. On its stand, Dataprev promote mini-courses on topics such as digital television, digital transmission and searching of content on intranets. Besides workshops, there program contains153 lectures.

Institutions that have already confirmed their presence in the forum are: Petrobras, Banco do Brazil, Caixa Economica Federal, IG, UOL, HP, SAP, IBM, Senac, Federal Service of Data Processing (Serpro) and Ministry Science and Technology, among others.

For more information click here.

The Brazilian Council of Cultural Entities gives its opinion

Patricia Covarrubia July 21, 2010 No comments:

As announced recently on this blog, Brazil unveiled its Copyright reform proposal. This proposal for the revision of the Copyright Law is running a public consultation and on July 19th the Minister of Culture received the first formal document from the Conselho Brasileiro de Entidades Culturais (CBEC).

The CBEC claims to be ‘an entity that brings together artists from music, theater, dance, circus, visual arts, film and hip hop.’ For one week, its members have discussed and worked on the draft proposals.

The content of this document
The CBEC starts by thanking the Goverment’s initiative to make the issue of copyright in a public consultation and so hearing what artists have to say and claim. It continues explaining that there are laws that regulate the interests of workers and enterprises and there are others that protect consumer rights. Therefore, the CBEC wants to help to improve a law with respect to its rights as creators. A law, according to the entity, that can recognise and appreciate the contribution that artists bring and so, enabling their works to reach the public and preventing entities and corporations to exploit, in an unreasonable manner, their work.

The document contains 7 pages. By the first page one can notice the artists’ frustration against the companies and enterprises rather than the illegal use, by consumers, of pirated music/videos and so on. The documents is divided into four points and it is written in Portuguese (believe me I have tried my best but I guess that my days (or dates!) in high school were more important than another foreign language lesson).

The points are: assignment of rights, licensing and use of venue by holders of copyright and related rights; non-voluntary licenses and the role of the Government; the office for collection – gathering contributions- and associations of management; and final observations.

The full text can be found here.

IP success and opportunity - INDECOPI assures the quality of its service

Patricia Covarrubia July 20, 2010 No comments:

The international firm Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), a world leading provider of business assurance, after a rigorous evaluation, granted re-certification of Quality System to the National Institute for the Defence of Competition and Intellectual Property Protection (INDECOPI).

INDECOPI has had this certification since July 2000. This has been renewed every three years from that date. The last renovation took place in September 2009. The assessment to renew the certification of its Quality Management System is based on ISO 9001:2008. This is an international-recognised quality management certification which focuses on customer satisfaction, process management and measurement, continual improvement and greater top management involvement – in one word, it certified business quality.

Therefore, INDECOPI has demonstrated its interest in the continuing improvement in the quality of services offered to the public. The certification includes 29 services that the Institution offers including: registration services for IP, dispute settlement committees in cases of unfair competition; care centre information and documentation, information and resolution of claims; analysis of ‘pisco’; among others.

Colombia: Register your trade mark, do not lose your business!

Patricia Covarrubia July 19, 2010 No comments:

Todays headline refers to the slogan that the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) has been using to promote the registration of trade marks. The campaign is directed to small businesses and entrepreneurs and it has been running since early this year. Basically the campaign not only encourages businesses to protect their trade marks and thus making them aware to the benefits of registering the mark and the risks involved if they do not do so, but also offers special discount of 25 percent for the registration of its mark – adding a 5% discount if the registration of the mark is made online.

The SIC webpage announces that due to the positive impact of the campaign and at the request of the chambers of commerce, the SIC extended the deadline until 31 December.

The SIC together with Chambers of Commerce, the mayor of Bogota and ACOPI, has trained over 400 entrepreneurs in the second quarter of this year. The main target is clarification between registering a business in the chambers of commerce and registering a trade mark at the SIC. While registering a business will demonstrate publicly the owner as a trader and its type of business, it does not protect its trade mark. The note continues to said that “if your trade mark is not recorded at the SIC, it does not exist”.

While I can pass judgement on this last sentence by saying that a trade mark which is not registered can still be protected under unfair competition laws (I cannot said that it is as easy and smooth process; on the contrary, it is a long, costly and tedious one) the campaign is a truthful one. Small businesses need to be aware that by just registering their businesses with a chosen trade name, it is not the same as registering and protecting a trade mark. For that reason, I can see that the campaign tries to illustrate entrepreneurs in a logical manner. That said, I cannot disapprove of the movement but on the contrary, praise it.

IMPI bond and counter-bond practice gets fine-tuning

Jeremy July 19, 2010 No comments:

The Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) may grant various precautionary measures in trade mark infringement and unfair competition suits. These include the seizure or suspension from circulation of infringing goods. To protect the alleged infringer who is eventually cleared of infringement claims, the plaintiff must however post a bond to cover the cost of damage caused through the wrongful grant of preliminary relief -- and IMPI will even vacate its order granting preliminary relief where the defendant posts a counter-bond to cover the cost of his own alleged liability.

In the past, IMPI has required that the counter-bond be double the amount of the original bond. However, by a legislative amendment this June, the quantum of the counter-bond is limited to just 140% of the plaintiff's bond on the basis that parties requesting precautionary measures have on their own initiative posted bonds of exorbitant magnitude, for the purpose of making it impossible for the affected party to post a counter-bond for lack of economic resources. IMPI is now also given discretion to increase the amount of the bond or the counter-bond, where it appears that the original amount is inadequate.

Source: note in the 15 July 2010 issue of the INTA Bulletin (Vol. 65, No. 13)

Another one for Brazil – this time is not a goal

Patricia Covarrubia July 16, 2010 No comments:

From the Brazil Industrial Property Office (INPI) we take notice of Brazil successfully registering its seventh Geographical Indication (GI). On the 13th of July 2010, the name ‘Pinto Bandeira’ has been officially registered for red, white and sparkling wines. The name Pinto Bandeira is a geographical area located in the region of Bento Gonçalves.

This GI joins six other GIs granted by the Brazilian INPI: Região do Cerrado Mineiro (for coffee), Vale dos Vinhedos (for red, white and sparkling wine), Pampa Gaúcho da Campanha Meridional (for beef and its derivatives), Paraty (for rum and brandy), Vale do Submédio São Francisco (for mango and table grapes), and Vale do Sinos (for finished leather). Also last week we informed you of three more Brazilian GI applications - for decorative stones.

Chile: software piracy indicates unpaid taxes

Patricia Covarrubia July 15, 2010 No comments:

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), in 2009 Chile lost $ 315 million for unpaid taxes due to pirated software. A spokesman from Business Software Alliance (BSA) expressed concern on this issue [I wonder if the government also is concerned, at the end, it is the one that is losing the revenue -unpaid tax, don’t you agree?].

Rodrigo Bulnes, BSA representative in Chile, said: "These losses reflect a worrying situation, it has to do with the little respect we have in Chile for the intellectual property”. He also mentioned that without prejudice to the institutional developments, like the reform of the Intellectual Property Act (see early post), piracy affects the country's image, discouraging innovation and harming the installation of foreign companies, due to the low level of protection for intellectual property rights.

Click here for an early post regarding a study on the rate of illegal software in Latin America.

Some IPTango moves

* Listed as one of the "Best blogs on Intellectual and Industrial Property Law". The University of Alicante Intellectual Property & Information Technology Project (UAIPIT).

* One of the only two Latin American blog listed in the "Top 100 Intellectual Property Blogs". Feedspot, as of May 2021.

* Listed as one of the "Top 15 Blogs For An Intellectual Property (IP) Enthusiasts". Buzzfeed.com, January 2017.

* Listed as one of the "World's Best IP Blogs". BananaIP.com, December 2015.

* IPTango founder Professor Jeremy Phillips was listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Listed as one of the "Influential intellectual property blawgs". A Dictionary of Intellectual Property Law, Peter Groves, 2011.

* Listed as one of the "Communities of Blawgers". Los blogs jurídicos y la web 2.0. para la difusión y la enseñanza del derecho, Gonzalo Ramírez Cleves, 2010.