Economic Competitiveness and Intellectual Property under debate

By ETCO
23/10/2012

Entrepreneurs and specialists from different countries met in São Paulo, at the XXXII International Congress on Intellectual Property, promoted by the Brazilian Association of Intellectual Property (ABPI), to discuss “The role of Intellectual Property in Economic Competitiveness”.

 

 Heloisa Ribeiro, Executive Director of ETCO and Pamela Passman, President of CREATe.org

The theme of the congress this year highlighted the importance of companies adding value to their products in order to increase their market competitiveness. During the event, ABPI signed an agreement with the Ponto Br Information and Coordination Center (NI.BR) to create an Arbitration Chamber aimed at resolving disputes involving domain names on the Internet.

The president of ABPI, Luiz Henrique do Amaral, points out that “the challenge in Brazil is to establish a more advantageous environment to create and innovate than to copy. It is necessary to consolidate the strategic role of Intellectual Property to consolidate the Brazilian position in the international market. Instead of competing with China, Indonesia and Vietnam, we must compete in the market in this intermediate range between low-quality and low-priced products and top of the line products, where we have full capacity to compete ”.

Present at the event, ETCO's executive director, Heloisa Ribeiro, spoke of the importance of civil society participation in combating piracy. "Although the piracy rates are still quite significant, there is a change in people's awareness of the harmful effects of illegal trade and the entities are acting strongly in this regard". About ETCO, she explained that the topic of piracy is among the priorities of the Institute, which monitors actions in the legislative sphere and understands that it is necessary to maintain continuity and constancy in repressive and awareness actions.

ETCO also participated in the exhibition with a stand together with the American NGO CREATe.org, which brings together more than 100 multinational companies in discussions related to the challenges of protecting intellectual property and anti-corruption actions. The institution's president, Pamela Passman, was at the congress to speak on a panel about the challenges and opportunities of competitiveness.

Issues such as legal certainty for investment in innovation were also discussed; inventive step in the technology industry; practical effects of the General Cup Law; mediation and arbitrate in IP; unfair competition; piracy; Copyright; electronic content and biotechnology.

Among the speakers were judges Francisco Loureiro and Liliane Roriz; the Minister of the Superior Court of Justice Sidnei Beneti; the president of the National Association of Research and Development of Innovative Companies (Anpei), Carlos Eduardo Calmanovici; the president of the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), Jorge Ávila; and the president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (Aipla), William G. Barber.