IPTango

Friday, 27 January 2012

When Time Shall Be No More: long delays in patent examinations

Patricia Covarrubia January 27, 2012 No comments:

After the good news from the Brazilian Instituto Nacional da Propriedad Industrial (INPI) on the IP filing boom (reported here) we now hear the news that INPI is managing to reduce the average time for patent examinations. It reports that in 2006 the average was 11.6 years; in 2007 7.3yrs; in 2008 10.4yrs; in 2009 10.3yrs; in 2010 was reduced to 8.3yrs and finally in 2011 to a whooping 5.4yrs.

The expectations:

A proper RIO jump!!

INPI informs that as “the demand for patents is growing, it is also necessary to expand the ability of INPI by hiring more examiners”. The estimates is to increase its staff of experts by 130% to achieve by 2015 examining patents in four years, as provided in the ‘Plano Brasil Maior’ (the Plan ‘Greater Brazil’).

According to INPI, the results achieved were due to three factors: the modernization of patent offices, archiving processes that were without pay, and recruitment.

Also INPI remembers that this year 2012 e-patents will be launched (patent filing via Internet). International standards for patent examination usually take three to four years (when you apply and when patent is granted). Brazil is getting there.

Source INPI.

Paper: The chilean Unfair Competition Act

Rodrigo Ramirez Herrera @ramahr January 27, 2012 No comments:

The unfair competition (family of trademark law system) in Chile is regulated through the Unfair Competition Act number 20.169 published in 2007 amended by Small and Medium-Sized Entities Act number 20.416 (2010). This legal text has been redacted in only ten sections, and the core of its regulation subject matter is defined in a general provision as, “[an] act of unfair competition is any act against good faith or good costumes which, by illegitimate means, is carried out with the purpose of diverting the clientele of a market agent”(art.3).

Aimed to analyze it in order to pose his critical standpoint about this law, chilean lawyer and researcher Fernando Fernández (www.icdt.cl) wrote an interesting paper that is now shared in our blog, called "The chilean Unfair Competition Act: A critical analysis" available full text (PDF) for our readers. Thanks for his gentleness we may enjoy it.

Congreso Nacional de Chile aprueba reforma a Ley de Propiedad Industrial

Rodrigo Ramirez Herrera @ramahr January 26, 2012 No comments:

Antes del receso legislativo ha quedado concluida, en el Congreso Nacional chileno, la tramitación del Proyecto de Ley destinado a modificar el decreto con fuerza de ley N° 3, de 2006, del Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Reconstrucción, hoy Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo, que fija el texto refundido, coordinado y sistematizado de la ley Nº 19.039, de Propiedad Industrial, con el objeto de adecuar la legislación interna a los tratados internacionales suscritos por Chile en materia de Propiedad Industrial, tales como el Tratado de Cooperación en materia de Patentes (PCT) y el Tratado sobre el Derecho de Marcas (TLT).

Mediante oficio del 19 de enero de 2012 el Congreso Nacional ha comunicado al Presidente de la República la aprobación de texto final del Proyecto de iniciativa del Ejecutivo, cuyas etapas y contenido han sido comentadas en anteriores entradas de este blog. El texto completo del Proyecto -con un artículo único reformatorio-, aprobado para su promulgación, está disponible en internet, así como un interesante comentario sobre su contenido.

Fuente: www.senado.cl

Colombia commits as TLT hits 50

Jeremy January 25, 2012 No comments:

Here's some good news for trade mark owners and their professional representatives: by TLT Notification No. 56, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has informed the world that the Government of the Republic of Colombia last week deposited its instrument of accession to the Trademark Law Treaty. The TLT will enter into force for Colombia on 13 April 2012.

This will bring the number of active participants in the TLT to a nice round 50. The region's participation in the TLT is growing: Colombia joins Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru -- but there's still no commitment from the regional superpowers.

Data Protection: Chile gives the thumbs up

Patricia Covarrubia January 25, 2012 No comments:

This week the Chilean ‘Cámara de Diputados’ (House of Representatives) approved the amendments made by the Senate in relation to the bill that reinforces the principle of specified and lawful purposes in processing of personal data. The law is known as ‘Dicom’.

The ‘ley Dicom’ (Law 19812) was published on June 2002 amending the law known as ‘Personal Data Protection’ (Law 19628). One of the changes promoted at the time were based in the handling of financial and commercial data. The new amendment also focuses on the treatment given to financial data and thus, the bill emphasises the fact that economic personal data hold shall be used only for the specific purposes for which it was collected, namely for commercial risk assessments and credit purposes.

It is therefore established that under no circumstances this information (financial data) may be required and/or used for staff selection, admission to schools, higher education, emergency medical care or nomination for a State office.

The note publishes by the Camara de Diputados here, continues saying that “those responsible for data records and distributor of records shall, in the development of its business, apply the principles of legitimacy, access, opposition, data quality, purpose, proportionality, transparency, non- discrimination, restrictions on use and safety in the processing of personal data." They must have a registration system indentifying the name of the person who is requesting the data, registering date and time, and who is the person responsible for the delivery of such data. They must also designate a person in charge, so that data owners can go to him to enforce their rights.

Violations of this law shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Law 19628 on the Protection of Right to Privacy.

Now the bill has completed its passage through Congress and has been sent to the Executive for promulgation.

The whole legislative process can be seen here.

Write to impress

Patricia Covarrubia January 24, 2012 No comments:

I presume that you have heard the expression ‘dress to impress’ – or at least you can remember your mum telling you this when you were going for an interview. This time, here goes an advice and opportunity: put in writing your thoughts and send your article to the Brazilian journal ‘Propriedade Intelectual e Desenvolvimento’ (Development and Intellectual Property).

I am afraid my writing at the moment is like this pencil!

This journal is published biannually and was launched in July 2012 when its first edition took place. This initiative is from INPI’s Academy of Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development which aims to foster scholarly discussion about the use of IP for development.

I have contacted the Institution and there are receiving papers in both Portuguese and English. Be one of them.

For more information contact journal@inpi.gov.br

Calling an IP panellist

Patricia Covarrubia January 20, 2012 No comments:

The iptango group has received yet another invitation [this time there is not dancing ‘dude’ asking me out to tango!]. While this blog does not promote any paid-for advertising, pop-ups and/or any other paraphernalia, we are a group of IP ‘dudes and dudettes’ that support each other work (even though sometimes we do not agree in a particular point).

This time I would like to endorse a calling from Daisy Rivera-Muzzio, Acumen BioPharma, LLC’s President who is “looking for an IP lawyer with experience in the pharmaceutical field interested in participating in a panel discussion about Business and IP considerations for branded generics in Latin America. The event will be held in Philadelphia on February 27."

Daisy used to be responsible for Pfizer Contract Manufacturing Operations in Latin America and now runs her own business. If you are interested please contact her at drmuzzio@acumenbiopharma.com.

Brazil protects a gem business – literally!

Patricia Covarrubia January 19, 2012 No comments:

The Brazilian Instituto Nacional da Propriedad Industrial (INPI) announced this week the granting of a geographical indication (GI) in the form of Indicação de Procedência ( Indication of Source/Origin) to ‘opalas preciosas’ (opal gem) and jewelery produced from these semi-precious stones in the town Pedro II situated in the state of Piauí in the Northeast region of Brazil. According to INPI from the date of the notification the local council has a period of 60 days to pay the fee for issuance of the certificate and thus ensure the formalization of the whole process.

The municipality of Pedro II has the only reservation of prime quality opal in the country. Australia and Brazil form the primary sources of opal in the world.

The TRIPs Agreement sets up the standard of protection in the area of IP and in regard to GI it defines it as “indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.” (Art 22). What is of importance here is that the TRIPs grants this figure to ANY good and so, we are not talking about the common wine and/or foodstuff but we are talking about other things such as art, craft, stones, shoes, and well now gems! There is indeed so much sense of geographical origin about this last one, don’t you agree? [literally – no man made or manipulated, but just brought by the territory/land/earth ]

GI does improve marketing because it differentiates it more successfully from competitors and I particular see the protection of many products under this figure as one of the best way to publicize a country. I feel so happy that I should get and buy one, any sponsors?

Aclaración sobre el sentido de resolución de aranceles periciales en Chile

Rodrigo Ramirez Herrera @ramahr January 18, 2012 No comments:

Con respecto a la entrada intitulada "Los aranceles periciales en Chile,sus nuevas tarifas y modalidades de pago", hemos recibido una gentil aclaración desde el Departamento de Comunicaciones del INAPI chileno con relación a la información siguiente que aportamos ayer:

"La resolución administrativa, adecuándose a los tiempos, establece además una modalidad de pago en dos cuotas (vale decir, establece un sistema de pago sujeto a plazo): la primera correspondiente al 70% del valor total del arancel pericial que se pagará al perito después de la entrega del informe pericial en INAPI, y la segunda cuota equivalente al restante 30% del arancel pericial, se pagará al perito una vez que haya entregado en INAPI el informe denominado ‘‘Respuesta del Perito’’, o una vez transcurrido el plazo legal para que el solicitante o las partes presenten observaciones al informe pericial, sin que hayan ejercido dicho derecho".

Diego Ponce, encargado de comunicaciones del INAPI, nos aclara, con su gentileza acostumbrada, que lo que la resolución quiere decir es que el solicitante debe cancelar el valor de una sola vez, siendo el INAPI quien, a fin de incentivar el proceso de elaboración de los informes por parte de los peritos, efectúa el pago en dos cuotas a ellos (en ese sentido ver el comunicado).

En definitiva, el texto del artículo segundo de esta resolución exenta, regula la relación entre el INAPI con los peritos, y no la relación entre los usuarios del sistema con el INAPI, de manera tal que se trataría, si seguimos esta interpretación, de un pago sujeto a condición suspensiva (entre el Estado y los examinadores), como fórmula de incentivo a la mejora de su gestión.Por ende, no hay pago en cómodas cuotas de los honorarios periciales a todo evento -en nuestra entusiasta interpretación pro usuario muy guiada por el art. 19 del Código Civil-, subsistiendo en todo caso el derecho (legal) al pago diferido del artículo 18 de la ley de Propiedad Industrial para quien quiera utilizarlo acreditando, eso sí, carencia de medios económicos. En fin, no todo lo que brilla es oro.

En todo caso el tenor literal del texto (art. 2) es el siguiente:

"Artículo segundo: El pago de los honorarios periciales se realizará en dos cuotas: la primera correspondiente al 70% del valor total del arancel pericial que se pagará al perito después de la entrega del informe pericial en INAPI, y la segunda cuota equivalente al restante 30% del arancel pericial, se pagará al perito una vez que haya entregado en INAPI el informe denominado ‘‘Respuesta del Perito’’, o una vez transcurrido el plazo legal para que el solicitante o las partes presenten observaciones al informe pericial, sin que hayan ejercido dicho derecho.

En caso que el solicitante se desistiere de la solicitud de derecho de propiedad industrial con posterioridad al nombramiento del perito y la aceptación del cargo, se pagará a este último el total del honorario pericial, aun cuando no se hubiere evacuado el informe pericial. Si el solicitante se desistiere después de evacuado el
informe pericial o la respuesta del perito, se pagará al perito el saldo pendiente.

En igual sentido se procederá en los casos que el Instituto resuelva el abandono de la solicitud, con posterioridad al nombramiento del perito y la aceptación del cargo (..) [contiene tabla]".

México – ACTA vuelve a las andadas

Gilberto Macias (@gmaciasb) January 18, 2012 No comments:

En plena polémica sobre la posible aprobación de SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) y las medidas tomadas por algunas páginas webs, nos enteramos a través de información proporcionada por el IMPI, que se ha entregado al Grupo de Trabajo para seguimiento de las negociaciones de ACTA del Senado, un documento de trabajo que permita al dicho Grupo de Trabajo atender su compromiso de actualizar y mejorar la legislación nacional para la debida protección de los derechos de propiedad intelectual.
Como os informamos con anterioridad (aquí y aquí) la firma del ACTA está siendo muy controvertida en México.

Sin duda alguna es necesaria una adecuación de las leyes de propiedad industrial e intelectual al mundo actual, pero no estoy muy seguro de que este tipo de leyes (ACTA, SOPA, HADOPI, SINDE) sean las adecuadas para ello.

Veremos hasta donde llega ésta nueva iniciativa, obvio sin perder de vista el desenlace sobre SOPA.

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.