Latin America Delegation Strengthens INTA Relationships in Three Key Countries 15/09/14 12:58

September 15, 2014 Vol. 69 No. 17 Back to Bulletin Main Page Latin America Delegation Strengthens INTA Relationships in Three Key Countries

In August, INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo, External Relations Coordinator for Latin America Gabrielle Doyle and External Relations Coordinator for Anticounterfeiting Maysa Razavi headed a delegation that met with INTA members, government officials and media throughout Latin America.

First Stop: Panama

The delegation, along with INTA members Audrey Williams (Benedetti & Benedetti, Panama), Miguel DePuy (DePuy & Asociados, Panama) and Hugo Moran (Icaza, Gonzalez-Ruiz & Aleman, Panama), kicked off in Panama City, where they met with a number of government officials and IP agencies. The expansion of the Panama Canal over the next year has raised numerous concerns for many of the officials in Panama. With an expected increase in the number of containers passing through the Canal from 6 million to 21 million annually, the lack of sufficient resources, technology and human capital to efficiently examine each container poses a serious threat to IP rights.

The delegation’s first meeting was with Sheila Lorena Hernandez, the Secretary General of the Panamanian Customs Authority, and Waldemar Oliveros Jaén, Policy Advisor and Intellectual Property Lawyer at the Panamanian Customs Authority. Ms. Hernandez and Mr. Jaén informed the delegation that with the expansion of the Canal, as well as the Colon Free Trade Zone, there is a larger flow of counterfeit products passing through the area. Additionally, there is a need to increase the number of officers focused on IP enforcement and to develop more standardized techniques for reviewing confiscated merchandise. The INTA delegation offered its support by pledging to provide training seminars for the new officials that will be hired following the expansion, as well as for inspectors and risk analysts within the Customs Authority.

The remainder of the Panama trip included meetings and discussions regarding the possibility of future collaboration and training with officials from agancies including the Industrial Property Registry, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and the District Attorney’s Office. The Panamanian delegation ended with a dinner at the Hard Rock Hotel Megopolis, which was attended by all of the Association’s member from Panama. IP Office representatives reported on a project to develop guidelines for trademark examiners to follow, a step that INTA strongly supports and congratulates.

Next Stop: Colombia

http://www.inta.org/INTABulletin/Pages/LatinAmericaDelegationStrengthensINTARelationshipsinThreeKeyCountries.aspx Página 1 de 4 Latin America Delegation Strengthens INTA Relationships in Three Key Countries 15/09/14 12:58

The next city stop for the Latin America Delegation was Bogotá, Colombia, where INTA staff attended meetings with government officials, examiner training and more, with the assistance of members in the country, including Alvaro Correa (Baker & McKenzie, Colombia); Juan David Castro (Estrategia Juridica, Colombia); Alicia Lloreda (Lloreda Camacho & Co., Colombia); Rodrigo Marre (Mackenna, Irarrazaval, Cuchacovich & Paz, Chile); Laura Michelsen (Triana, Uribe & Michelsen, Colombia); Camila Santamaria (Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, Colombia); Fernando Triana (Triana, Uribe & Michelsen Ltda, Colombia); and ASIPI President Juan Vanrell (Vanrell Propiedad Intelectual Abogados, Uruguay).

The delegation first headed to the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (DIAN) to meet with the Deputy Director for International Trade Management, Maria Leonisa Ortiz Bolivar, and her advisor, Fabian Garcia. The delegation expressed the view that the customs office needs to standardize the procedure for destroying counterfeit merchandise at the borders and to create an online trademark registry that is accessible publically. The members and Ms. Ortiz Bolivar agreed that improving these processes will enhance the overall efficiency of the office and counterfeit seizure procedures.

At the Colombian Attorney General’s Office, INTA participated in the largest meeting of the delegation with Colombian officials, including Dr. Carlos Gaitan Bazurto, the Director of the IP Rights Unit; Danny Julian Quintana, the Director of the Technical Investigation Unit; Carlos Guerrero, Advisor to the Vice Attorney General; and various criminal prosecutors from within the office. INTA offered to provide training seminars for the attorneys, examiners, judges and specialists in order to establish a standardized search procedure. The officials also expressed interest in receiving best practices from INTA’s Anticounterfeiting Committee, which the Association is eager to share.

INTA Signs Third MOU in Latin America

The highlight of the Colombia portion of the delegation’s visit was the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce on August 22. The MOU marked the third agreement INTA has established with IP offices in Latin America, which is evidence of the Association’s growing interest in the region. This agreement intends to increase cooperation between the two organizations and work to improve trademark protection for Colombian and international brand owners alike. Jose Luis Londoño Fernandez, Director of IP for the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and Maria Jose Lamus Becerra, Director of Distinctive Signs at the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC), both attended the signing. Also in attendance was the President of the Inter-American Association for Industrial Property (ASIPI), Juan Vanrell. His presence at the signing reinforced INTA’s growing relationships with Latin American organizations and trademark offices.

The collaboration under the MOU commenced immediately with inaugural activities, including an Unreal Campaign student event at the Fundación Gimnasio Moderno School and examiner training at the Chamber of Commerce of Chapinero.

The Unreal Student Engagement Session was the first held in Latin America. The program—presented to 40 ninth graders at the all-boys private school, Fundación Gimnasio Moderno, in Bogotá— was emceed by Mr. Castro. Mr. Correa, a member of INTA’s Latin America Global Advisory Council, opened the event with welcoming remarks and told the students about the Unreal Campaign and its objective of educating teens about the harms of counterfeiting. Ms. Santamaria gave a presentation showing how counterfeiting affects the Colombian coffee industry. She offered the acronym PES (Precio, Empaque, Sitio, or “Pricing, Packaging, Site”) as a tool for remembering what to look for when spotting counterfeits. Ms. Lamus Becerra from the SIC presented the government perspective and illustrated the importance of trademarks in the Colombian marketplace. Finally, Mr. Castro led an activity in which students browsed through samples of counterfeit and genuine products to identify which were fake and later discussed the differences between the fake and genuine products.

http://www.inta.org/INTABulletin/Pages/LatinAmericaDelegationStrengthensINTARelationshipsinThreeKeyCountries.aspx Página 2 de 4 Latin America Delegation Strengthens INTA Relationships in Three Key Countries 15/09/14 12:58

The examiner training, which followed the Unreal Campaign event, was coordinated by Ms. Michelsen, a member of INTA’s Trademark Office Practices Committee. Mr. Sanz de Acedo and Mr. Londoño gave opening remarks to a group composed of every trademark office examiner from the SIC in Bogotá. Federico Berger (Ferrer-Reyes, Tellechea & Bouche, Argentina), Chair of the Latin America Subcommittee of INTA’s Non-Traditional Marks Committee, and fellow subcommittee member Pedro Vilhena (Kasznar Leonardos Intellectual Property, Brazil) delivered enlightening presentations to more than 40 examiners on recent international trends in nontraditional marks and trade dress.

The night before the MOU signing, INTA held a reception celebrating the agreement for its members in Bogotá. The event was a success, with more than 40 people attending, including representatives from corporations such as Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia and Grupo Familia, as well as government officials from the SIC.

Final Stop: Brazil

The delegation then traveled from Bogotá to São Paulo, Brazil, for the Brazilian Intellectual Property Association’s (ABPI’s) 34th Annual International Congress, held at the World Trade Center in the Sheraton Hotel. Elizabeth Kasznar Fekete (Kasznar Leonardos Intellectual Property, Brazil), ABPI’s President, and Jorge Arbache, an economics professor at the University of Brasilia (UNB) and Economic Advisor to the President of the Brazilian Development Bank, revealed some of the findings of a pioneer study conducted by ABPI on the economic importance of intellectual property and knowledge-intensive industries in Brazil. The study, which focused on the role of the private sector in Brazilian innovation, revealed, like similar studies conducted in the EU and U.S., that companies in knowledge-intensive industries on average pay better and are more active in international trade. Historically, however, the model for economic growth in Brazil has focused on capital and labor, and has not favored knowledge-intensive industries. Mr. Arbache said that companies must therefore increase their investment in science and technology, R&D and innovation in products and processes in order to remain competitive in Brazil. “Companies in the most knowledge-intensive sectors employ more people and have a more educated work force,” he said. Thus, the study proposed that increased access to knowledge, productivity and government emphasis on innovation will add value and improve economic prosperity in Brazil.

Later in the Congress, the Brazilian delegation, which included Mario Soerensen Garcia (Soerensen Garcia Advogados Associados, Brazil), Cristina Pinheiro Palmer (Pinheiro Palmer Advogados, Brazil), Suyang Melo (Natura Cosmeticos, S.A., Brazil) and Gustavo Giay (Marval, O’Farrell & Mairal, Argentina), sat down with Otavio Brandelli, President of Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI); Vinicius Bogea, Director of Trademarks; and Marcus Dudkiewicz, Coordinator of IP Global Issues, to get an update on INPI’s priorities. Mr. Brandelli said that discipline and committment would be key, and stressed that reducing pendency and the backlog at INPI are his top priorities. INTA welcomes this approach and looks forward to supporting and collaborating with INPI to achieve these goals.

Mr. Sanz de Acedo and Board of Directors member Gustavo Giay also met with many INTA associate members from Brazil, as well as corporate members and ABPI representatives Regina Sampaio (Rede Globo, Brazil) and Erika Diniz, Executive Director at ABPI, to discuss opportunities for fostering relationships with industry in Brazil.

Following the ABPI Congress, Ms. Doyle and Ms. Razavi flew to Rio de Janeiro to meet with INPI officials, including Mr. Bogea and his staff. While in Rio, Ms. Pinheiro Palmer, Marcelo Muller (Luiz Leonardos & Cia, Brazil) and Mr. Vilhena presented an informative seminar on nontraditional marks and fluid marks to more than 20 examiners on August 27.

INTA’s Anticounterfeiting Committee (ACC) also held a government roundtable titled “From the World Cup to the Olympics: Enforcement Practices in Brazil,” organized by ACC members Ricardo Pinho (Guerra IP, Brazil) and Luiz Claudio Garé (Garé & Ortiz do Amaral—Advogados, Brazil).

A membership reception followed the event. There, members discussed ways to improve Brazil’s National Directory to Combat Trademark Counterfeiting, which was launched by INPI in December 2013, from a user’s standpoint. An invitation from Brazilian

http://www.inta.org/INTABulletin/Pages/LatinAmericaDelegationStrengthensINTARelationshipsinThreeKeyCountries.aspx Página 3 de 4 Latin America Delegation Strengthens INTA Relationships in Three Key Countries 15/09/14 12:58

Customs was extended to INTA for a meeting in Brasilia to provide Customs staff with an industry perspective on the current enforcement mechanisms.

INTA would like to express its sincere thanks to ASIPI, ABPI and the member volunteers who contributed to such a successful visit by the delegation to Latin America. INTA plans to attend ASIPI’s 50th Anniversary Congress in Mexico City on November 29, 2014.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of items in the INTA Bulletin, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.

http://www.inta.org/INTABulletin/Pages/LatinAmericaDelegationStrengthensINTARelationshipsinThreeKeyCountries.aspx Página 4 de 4