Rio de Janeiro – With a total of 124,660 brand registration requests with the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in 2008, being 70% by national companies, Brazil is presently one of the world’s ten leading countries in terms of requests submitted. The evaluation was made last Friday (24th) by the director-general at the first regional office of the World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo) in Rio de Janeiro, José Graça Aranha.
With regard to patent requests made in the country, Brazil is the leader in Latin America, with 26,232 requests submitted last year. In the developing world, however, it comes after China and South Korea in the ranking, for instance, even though its position is very close to that of India, said Aranha.
According to a provisional survey disclosed by the Wipo in January this year, Brazil climbed three positions in the ranking of requests for patents, having gone from the 27th to the 24th position. In the BRICs group, comprised of Brazil, Russia, India and China, the Ompi report reveals that only China and Brazil recorded growth in the number of requests for international patents in 2008 compared with the previous year. Total requests in Brazil rose from 396 to 451, surpassing countries such as Ireland (444) and South Africa (382).
José Graça Aranha stated that next week, Brazil celebrates the 200th anniversary of the first intellectual property law, which progressed as time went by. Brazil was one of the first countries to pass a law on the matter, in 1809. “Undoubtedly, over the course of these 200 years, the juridical aspects have evolved a lot,” he said.
He asserted that the system will continue to be perfected, as happened in recent years. Now, there is greater awareness of the importance of protecting industrial property. “We must work for this matter to be demystified, so that companies and people may use the system more efficiently.”
What it takes, according to the director-general of Wipo, is for the system to be developed “so that it becomes less expensive for the owners of the brands, patents, drawings, the creations in short. So that users, by all of the means that exist these days, through computers, the Internet, may have more access and protection in a shorter time period and spending much less.” He explained that this can be done by establishing mechanisms to make “the red-tape aspects less expensive for brand owners.”
The Wipo Office for Technical Cooperation and Training for Latin America and the Caribbean is going to work to develop mechanisms for reducing costs and making life easier for users, said José Graça Aranha.
The regional office is going to provide services to users of the industrial property system, namely the inventors and businessmen, as well as to governments. It is going to aid the countries, for instance, that wish to improve the implementation of their brand and patent systems, and should also be active in arbitration and conflict mediation.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
