The year 2019 started loaded with changes in the Brazilian political and economic scenario. In addition to the rise of five positions in the Global Innovation Index (IGI) ranking, which placed Brazil in 64th place in the list of the most innovative economies, there was a sensitive change in government biases, which brought some impacts on the management of intellectual property rights in the country.
Due to a change in the organizational structure of the federal government made by the current president, the National Institute of Industrial Property ("INPI"), responsible for patents and the registration of trademarks, industrial designs, software and technology transfer contracts, was attached to the Ministry of Economy. The structure of the INPI itself also underwent changes, with the appointment of a new President: Cláudio Vilar Furtado, a career professor and doctor in business administration.
Since the previous administration, INPI has been trying to adopt measures to make the bureaucracy easier in order to place the protection of industrial property rights in Brazil in a position at least similar to that of countries that have a more efficient and structured system, such as Switzerland and other European countries.
In this sense, there has been a significant reduction in the time taken to analyze patent applications submitted to the agency and a considerable reduction in the backlog of patents, but there is still a long way to go, especially for the necessary adaptations to the Madrid Protocol (more on this subject later).
Check here the complete article by Karin Klempp, Luiz Fernando Plastino and Lívia Cristina de Moraes, from Barcellos Tucunduva Advogados.
