Author: José Antonio Faria Correa *

Source: O Globo Online - OPINION - 16/08/2010

Reader article José Antonio Faria Correa *

Over many decades, the different governments of the country discussed and implemented restrictive policies in the area of ​​industrial property, understanding that the tutelage rules in force at the international level did not suit the interests of developing countries, such as Brazil, and could stifle the nascent industries. . Thus, rules were created that prevented the granting of patents in certain sectors; strict control policies regarding the hiring of technology of external origin and discordant rules regarding the international treatment of industry, trade and service brands.

”Who would invest, then, in what can be freely appropriated by competitors who have done nothing but copy? Investment, of any nature, is only viable with legal certainty ”

Although such policies, embodied since the edition of the then Industrial Property Code of 1970 and implemented by the recently created National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI), can be questioned for a plurality of reasons, their justifications, in any case, were registered. if the status that Brazil, 40 years ago, had in the constellation of countries. We were a country with a huge deficit in the most different areas and without bargaining power in international forums.

The country has evolved a lot since then, and its private sector, in the midst of the well-known bad weather, has matured and tore up markets. At the same time, the competence of our diplomacy has been increasingly expanding the voice of Brazil's interests. In addition, the more recent governments have ceased to be afraid of freedom and have come to have more confidence in the ability of our country to maintain a more plastic economic choreography, while obeying a safe normative metronome.

No matter how much conceptual divergence the different currents that think about the country's destinies may have, few people fail to recognize that today, the greatest asset of a nation is its ability to create, process and manage knowledge, giving it an economic dynamic . Nobody could argue, either, that this knowledge would be useless without legal support. Who, then, would invest in what can be freely appropriated by competitors who have done nothing but copy? Investment, of any kind, is only feasible with legal certainty.

In recent times, our country has been occupying political space and its name is considered in discussions of issues of worldwide repercussion. The position of our leaders shows the legitimate longing for grandeur, magnitude, prestige. The country wants international respect and behind it there is substance: there is a thriving industry; there is an exuberant trade; there is a business community that interacts with the most modern available on the international market.

It takes a mentality that favors the granting of patents for industrial creations by those who designed them; that treats restrictions, of any nature, as an exception and not as a rule; to effectively grant trademark registrations in a timely manner, in the international standards that the country has adhered to since the XNUMXth century and allowing the electronic deposit system to function effectively, through free choice in the description of products and services; that recognizes the Brazilian businessman's ability to negotiate; that values ​​the profession of industrial property agent, preventing uneducated and unscrupulous people from destroying the intangible heritage of Brazilians and foreigners for lack of training, as many want.

Without these premises, the Brazilian businessman and the potential foreign investor are left without protection, at the mercy of pirates, who profit selfishly and harm not only the treasury but, mainly, the taxpayer / consumer. The role of the INPI is to mirror this luminosity that the country has been striving to spread throughout the world. Without patents, without trademark registration, without hiring in the technology area, this light goes out along with the fire of rhetoric, purely fatuous. Today's Brazil, definitely, is not that of 40 years ago.

* José Antonio Faria Correa is former president of the Brazilian Intellectual Property Association