

Colombia regulates use of trade mark symbol


Gilberto Gil answers questions on copyright and Creative Commons
In Democracy Now! there is an interview with legendary musician Gilberto Gil, presently a cabinet official in the Brazilian government. In this interview with Amy Goodman, he is asked about some copyright issues:
"AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the Creative Commons movement, what it means, what it means in Brazil, what it means for your music, what you’re trying to do?
GILBERTO GIL: Yeah. The author laws, the author rights, I mean, they belong to—the way they are set and the laws are written and applied and everything, that all belongs to a previous period, you know, previous time, an analog, so to speak, an analog time. Now, the digital area, the digital era enable us to extend and expand cultural products and cultural goods and cultural possibilities to a level that we—we have to also rewrite and reshape the legal framework and the regulatory framework, so that it can adjust to the new possibilities. That’s what Creative Commons is about, bringing possibilities to manage their own work, you know, to the creators, so that the songwriters, the theater play writers, the book writers, and so and so, can have the possibilities to manage their own work and say—and determine what their work will serve for.
AMY GOODMAN: We are here in the Time Warner building in New York, where the Personal Democracy Forum is taking place. Can you talk about your experience with Time Warner?GILBERTO GIL: Well, when I decided to open one of—some of my songs, you know, so that recommendation and sharing and everything would be possible, made possible for other people, I had a “no” from my company—then my company; I am not Time Warner anymore, then I was—and they wouldn’t allow me to use the songs that they had recorded. And I wanted—
AMY GOODMAN: You wanted them to be able to be downloaded for free?
GILBERTO GIL: Not necessarily to be downloaded for free, but to be open for different uses, you know, cultural uses by different people, the way the licenses, the Creative Commons licenses allow people to, so that they could recombine, they could share, they could redo parts or wholes of the songs for the cultural purposes, you know? And I couldn’t use the pieces that I had recorded for Time Warner. And then I used some of the pieces that I had already recorded for myself, because my contract with them was ending by then, and I had started doing my own recordings and owning my own recordings and some of them. And then I used some of that.
AMY GOODMAN: Gilberto Gil, do you see the way the music companies are cracking down on musicians and cracking down on access to music, calling it piracy, similar to the food companies like Monsanto cracking down on farmers, because they’re claiming they’re using their seeds in an unauthorized way?
GILBERTO GIL: Yeah, this is one of the things that we have to reconsider—I mean, the whole of the society, as I say, politicizing the new technology, so that we can discuss the uses, you know, and the restrictions and how far the restrictions should go and should stay and how open we should sort of get the whole system, you know, going, because we need that. I mean, there are several social uses that we can have, from pharmaceuticals and from intellectual goods and everything, that need openness to be considered, you know, so that the sharing, the access and everything, could be permitted. So we have to reshape them and the whole legal framework, you know, internationally and locally, you know, country by country and internationally.
And we are doing that. I mean, the Creative Commons project, for instance, helps a lot this kind of advancement, so that the individuals, the creators themselves, they can start establishing which kind of use they want their works to have, and which they allow, which they don’t allow the other people to do their works. But in Brazil, for instance, we are now launching a whole project of changing the authoral law in Brazil, discussing—
AMY GOODMAN: You’re working with Lawrence Lessig?
GILBERTO GIL: With Lawrence?
AMY GOODMAN: With Lawrence Lessig?
GILBERTO GIL: Oh, definitely. Yes, we are partners. He brought the Creative Commons project to Brazil. We helped them—we helped him and the whole group to find their ways in Brazil, to find the right people, to find the universities and institutions that back them in Brazil. So we became close friends. We are working together, yeah".

Weak dollar leads to higher filing fees in Brazil


Chilean head for WIPO patents committee


Reforma a la legislación andina sobre propiedad intelectual
Alfonso Rivera Canales
June 24, 2008


Predictive report shows good signs for pharma patenting

According to the report, access to medicines in the public sector has increased, with governments using their bargaining power to negotiate and centralise drug purchases in an effort to contain costs. At a regional level, MERCOSUR members have agreed to establish a drug price database to compare and monitor drug prices.
From an intellectual property perspective the report mentions that in Mexico the government has started a renewal process for drug registrations, it being predicted that there will only be patented and bioequivalent generics by 2010. For the time being, however, Mexico remains on the 2008 USTR Watch List. The region is also facing a growing incidence of drug counterfeiting, but initiatives are in place to control it.

Battle of the Virgins

In 1991 Virgin, seeking to register a figurative mark containing the word VIRGIN for goods in Classes 9, 16 and 25. In order to do so, Virgin entered into an agreement with Café La Virginia SA, the owner of registered trade marks LA VIRGINIA, VIRGINIA GOLD and VIRGIN ISLANDS for goods in Classes 32 and 33 (beverages). Under the terms of this coexistence agreement, Virgin agreed that it not apply its trade mark to foodstuffs at any time. Virgin subsequently applied to register VIRGIN for drinks in Classes 32 and 33. La Virginia opposed and the applications were abandoned. Virgin later re-applied to register the same mark in the same classes. Once again, La Virginia opposed. At this point, Virgin filed suit for "undue opposition", alleging that the VIRGIN mark and La Virginia’s earlier marks were not confusingly similar. The Federal Court of Appeals upheld the terms of the coexistence agreement, concluding that Virgin’s behaviour was contrary to good faith. Also, Virgin’s past conduct was aimed at testing out the extent to which La Virginia would seek to enforce its rights.
Virgin's also argued that the agreement applied only to foodstuffs in Classes 29, 30 and 31, but not beverages in Classes 32 and 33. The court said that trade mark law provides no definition of ‘foodstuffs’, nor is that term limited by the Food Code. The two marks were clearly confusingly similar too, as Virgin must have conceded when it opposed Café La Virginia's application to register its own mark in Class 32 [Source: Case 13921/02, 7 February 2008, noted by Fernando Noetinger, Noetinger & Armando, Buenos Aires, in World Trademark Report].

Brazil plans to plunder US patents if cotton subsidy is held unlawful

Last year the WTO gave Antigua and Barbuda free rein to infringe US IP rights to the value of $21 million after upholding the islands' complaint against US trading policies regarding online casino websites (see here).

Bolivia bloquea la reforma de la Decisión 486 en Comunidad Andina
Gracias a Alfonso Rivera (Tobar y Bustamante, Ecuador), en IP-Tango hemos tenido conocimiento de los problemas que están apareciendo en el seno de Comunidad Andina para reformar la Decisión 486 de régimen común sobre propiedad intelectual. Esta reforma ha sido solicitada por Perú para así poder cumplir con el Tratado de Libre comercio celebrado con Estados Unidos. No obstante, a pesar de que Ecuador y Colombia están de acuerdo con la modificación, Bolivia se niega a admitirla. Esto ha provocado que en el consejo Ampliado de Ministros de Relaciones Exteriores y de Comercio de la CAN celebrado el lunes y martes en Lima no pudiera aprobar dicha reforma puesto que se requiere unanimidad de los Estados parte. El gobierno peruano ha indicado que seguirán trabajando para que se aprueba la modificación.
Más información sobre la cuestión aquí.
La Propuesta de reforma de la Decisión 486 puede encontrarse aquí (SG/dt411/Rev2)
Más información sobre la cuestión aquí.
La Propuesta de reforma de la Decisión 486 puede encontrarse aquí (SG/dt411/Rev2)

Proyecto de Ley peruana sobre sistemas nacionales de normalización
The "spanish version of IP-Tango" se estrena con una noticia relacionada con Perú. El INDECOPI (Instituto nacional de defensa de la competencia y de la protección de la propiedad intelectual) acaba de publicar el Proyecto de Ley sobre sistemas nacionales de normalización y acreditación. Esta ley, referida a uno de los temas más actuales en el mundo de la propiedad intelectual - standards - gracias al señor Bill Gates y su OOXML, "está destinada a fomentar la competitividad económica del país y así aprovechar los beneficios del Acuerdo de Promoción Comercial firmado entre el Perú y Estados Unidos de América".
Más sobre Perú, aquí.
Más sobre "standards and IP", aquí.
Más sobre Perú, aquí.
Más sobre "standards and IP", aquí.

INPI in Argentina shifts stance on coexistence agreements
The current issue of the International Trademark Association's INTA Bulletin (Vol. 63, No. 11) carries a short feature entitled "INPI Signals More Flexible Approach to Trademark Coexistence". Written by Raquel Flanzbaum and Manuel Alonso (Mitrani, Caballero & Ojam Abogados, Buenos Aires), it summarises the current position under the Argentine trade mark law. Till now, no mark may be registered if an identical or almost identical mark has already been applied for or registered for the same goods or services by someone else. While INPI, the national rights administration bureau, has applied this rule irrespective of whether the applicant and the earlier rights holder/applicant have entered into a coexistence agreement -- but recent cases indicate that INPI has softened its position, taking such agreements into account.

Paraguay fakes in the spotlight

"The city is conveniently located at the convergence of the borders of three countries (Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay), making it the ideal transit point for tax free and often illegal goods headed to all points beyond. ...Whatever the position of the state agencies, the fact remains that civil enforcement, policed by the IP owners whose rights are infringed by fake products, is particularly difficult to achieve when IP rights are abused in geographically remote areas and where each owner has to enforce its rights at its own expense.
As long as the Paraguayan and Brazilian authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the thriving smuggling practice, Paraguay's black markets will continue to thrive. For a country that doesn't see much tourism (or other industry for that matter) it seems to be as much an economic necessity as it is a fact of life".

Hard Rock brand for Costa Rica resort


Chile, Uruguay top tech index
Latin Business Chronicle (LBC) records that Uruguay was challenging Chile as the top technology nation in Latin America, while Cuba languishes at the foot of the list. These are the findings of LBC's third annual Latin Technology Index. Covering 20 countries, the Index compares the penetration rates of dial-up and broadband internet, personal computers, wireless subscribers and fixed telephone lines. All countries improved their score over 2006, though at different levels. El Salvador was the fastest riser, while Honduras and Nicaragua showed the lowest gains. Venezuela replaced Costa Rica as the Latin American nation with the fourth-highest technology level.

Hypertension? Too much cholesterol? Then try a trade mark licence



IP included in Chile-Australia trade package

"transparent, high-standard protection has been locked in for intellectual property rights including patents, trademarks, geographical indications and copyright".This is the first FTA between any country within Latin America and Australia.

Paraguay set to cash in on stevia


Uruguay commits to WPPT in late August

By WPPT Notification No. 70 (WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty) the Government of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay has notified the World Intellectual Property Organization of its deposit of an instrument of ratification of the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty 1996 (WPPT). This Treaty enters into force, with respect to Uruguay, on 28 August 2008.
Uruguay signed the WIPO Copyright Treaty 1996 -- the sister treaty to the WPPT -- in 1997 but has yet to ratify it.
Uruguay signed the WIPO Copyright Treaty 1996 -- the sister treaty to the WPPT -- in 1997 but has yet to ratify it.

The new Brazil ruling on embryo stem cell research

"In Brazil, the stem cell cannot be patented, as Articles 10 and 18 from the Industrial Property Law (Law 9.279/06) state that the country does not recognise patents on life. But the country accepts patents on processes for obtaining stem cells and other things such as proliferation, differentiation, and patient treatment, with INPI requiring novelty, inventive step, industrial application and other tests".[Source: "Brazil Approval Of Embryonic Stem Cell Research Could Boost Patenting", posted by Catherine Saez].

"Smart" to buy defective goods, so long as they're cheap?

Clothes, CDs and DVDs were the goods that respondents most identified with counterfeiting, the recordings in particular being easy to copy. The survey concluded that Salvadorans were most likely to buy fake clothing (53%), shoes (34%) and perfume (26%), followed by counterfeit CDs, DVDs, food products, sport shoes, medicines, jewellery, toys, watches and books. Consumers in general believes that that “buying counterfeit products is smart, even if they are deficient with regard to their quality, safety features and durability”.

Brazil opens up com.br domains to ordinary folk


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This weblog proposes to provide free, reliable and - if possible - entertaining information about IP law, practice and business matters in the sphere of Latin America. If you'd like to get involved in this, as a blogger or as a supplier of information, please email me here. I hope that this blog will evolve into a collaborative weblog like the IPKat, Class 46, Afro-IP and IP Finance, with a good flow of information, the chance for readers to post comments, and NO ADVERTISEMENTS.
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