São Paulo – The registering of brands and patents in other countries and the legal liabilities and precautions involved in international contracts are some of the topics that will be covered in two lectures from the International Law workshop, to be offered to Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce member companies next Wednesday (18th).
The guest lecturers are attorneys Luís Gustavo Haddad, a partner at law firm Lilla, Huck, Otranto e Camargo Advogados, and Cinthya Imano, from Almeida Prado e Hoffmann Advogados. Haddad will discuss the risks involved and the precautions to be taken when entering into an international contract. Imano will elaborate on the pros and cons of the Madrid System, an international treaty that sets international rules for registering brands.
Imano explains that Brazil is not a signatory of Madrid System and is still discussing whether it is worth joining the treaty, which 90-plus countries have signed. “I am going to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the Madrid System. It allows a Brazilian company looking to register its brand abroad to register it with the Inpi (Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property) before applying for the register in the countries it wishes to operate in with its brand or patent,” she said.
Since Brazil is not a signatory, a company that decides, for instance, to use a brand in five countries besides Brazil must apply for the register and consult the authorities in each of those countries. But there is one disadvantage to joining the Madrid System. “If a certain brand is already registered in another country, it might be rendered unusable, including in Brazil,” she says. Imano claims that signing the protocol “opens doors” for companies to operate abroad, but whether Brazil will sign or not is still under discussion in Congress.
Registrations for the Arab Chamber members-only workshop are still open.
Workshop on International Law
November 18th, 2015, 8:30am to 11am
Hotel Renaissance, Alameda Santos, 2.233, São Paulo, São Paulo
Information: call 55 11 3147-4073 or write to ngarcia@ccab.org.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
