2016-06-01

Brazilians and Europeans share experiences on industrial property

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The European Union-Brazil Sector Dialogues Support Project held the 1^st International Workshop on Technical Cooperation among Industrial Property Offices in Brazil and Europe, on April 12 to 14, in Rio de Janeiro. The event was organized and hosted by the Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial - INPI [National Institute of Industrial Property], the entity responsible for the action dealing with this theme under the aegis of the Sector Dialogues. 

At the opening of the workshop, the National Director for the Sector Dialogues Project, Marcelo Barbosa, highlighted the fact that INPI was actively participating in actions sponsored by the initiative. “This shows the Institute's commitment to innovation”, he pointed out. According to Marcelo Barbosa, the event is a great opportunity for INPI to learn about the state of the art as regards the management of industrial property offices, with a view to implementing improvements in the sector. In this respect, Luiz Pimentel, INPI president, ensured that the Institute's staff focuses on the ongoing improvement of its services.

The seminar "Dialogues between Brazil and the European Union for the Promotion of Technical Cooperation in the Field of Industrial Property" opened the workshop program. INPI technical departments were presented on the second day of the event, and these presentations were followed by discussions with representatives of foreign offices attending the event: Swedish Patent and Registration Office (SPRO), the National Institute of Industrial Property/France (INPI/FR), Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO), European Patent Office (EPO), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO). The last day of the workshop was dedicated to bilateral meetings and the preparation of work plans related to existing cooperation.

Fernando Cassibi de Souza, Deputy Head of the Multilateral Organs Division at INPI, and operating officer for the action, said that the event was extremely positive and that it provided for the exchange of good management practices for industrial property offices, which benefits both the offices involved and the their users. "We have a very positive working horizon in the future”.

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