ABPI entered into an important partnership with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) to hold events that discuss relevant topics about Intellectual Property, namely the IP Meetings. The partnership between the two entities seeks to disseminate the culture of Intellectual Property in Brazil.
Two events were held in May: on May 8th, the Marrakesh Treaty was discussed – an international agreement aimed at facilitating access to printed works for the visually impaired and with other difficulties – and on the 28th was held the webinar “Mediation and Arbitration in IP as an alternative to legal procedures”.
Marrakesh Treaty – The webinar “The regulation in Brazil of the Marrakesh Treaty”, which was supported by the Ministry of Tourism’s Copyright and Intellectual Property Secretariat (SDAPI), took place 20 days before the end of the Public Consultation opened by the Government’s Special Secretariat for Culture (SECULT). The event concluded that the Treaty will expand the supply of works for the disabled and will find support in Brazilian legislation. More than 6.5 million Brazilians have visual impairments – of this total, about 600 thousand people are blind, according to the latest survey by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
The event brought together debaters Carlos Ferrari, director of Institutional Relations at ONCB – National Organization for the Blind in Brazil; Rafael Ferraz Vasquez, of the WIPO Copyright Division in Geneva; and Gustavo Martins de Almeida, legal consultant for SINEL – National Union of Book Publishers, under the mediation of Priscilla C. Cantuária, SDAPI Regulation Coordinator. The opening virtual table was attended by Gabriel Leonardos, vice president of ABPI; José Graça Aranha, WIPO regional director; and Aline Iramina, director of SDAPI’s Regulatory Policy Department.
In his presentation, Ferrari emphasized that the Marrakesh Treaty is complementary to Brazilian legislation, which is advanced in terms of access to printed works for people with disabilities, but noted that its implementation must be done with quality. “The treaty must be signed, as it is an exercise of law that goes beyond reading, it is a human right”, he said.
In addition to expanding access, the expectation is that with the Treaty there will also be an increase in the supply of printed works, in Braille or audiovisual. However, Vazquez drew attention to some “complexities” in the implementation of the Treaty, in particular the question of the choice of certified entities, the formats, and the system of cross-border exchanges of works, considering the language differences and the laws of the countries. “The legal problem of copyright will be solved with the implementation of the Treaty, but the other challenges remain”, he stated.
In his presentation, Almeida noted that the Brazilian Inclusion Law (Law No. 13.146/2015) placed Brazil at the forefront of the rights of people with disabilities. He recalled that the Federal Public Ministry and SINEL developed a Term of Adjustment of Conduct for the gradual conversion of printed publications in formats accessible to the disabled. “The treaty will find plowed ground in Brazil for its implementation”, he affirmed.
Mediation and Arbitration – “A new Mediation methodology, in which the mediator has an awareness-raising role concerning to the parties, addressing the weaknesses and strengths of their positions, and brings forward the possible outcome of the process, has proved to be more effective in resolving conflicts”. The observation was made by the vice president of AIPPI (Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle in its French acronym) Luiz Henrique do Amaral in the second edition of IP Meetings, which discussed Mediation and Arbitration.
“This methodology is already very advanced in the United States, but in Brazil, it is still in its childhood”, explains Amaral, adding that in Brazil, Mediation by the traditional method prevails. “The other model, the traditional one, works very well when both parties are imbued with a spirit of doubt on some point and, in good faith, recognize the arguments of the opposite party”.
The webinar also had as debaters Ignácio Castro Llamas, Director of the IP Disputes and External Relations Division of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center, in Geneva, and Carlos Maurício Ardissone, from the General Coordination of Appeals and Administrative Nullity Proceedings of the BPTO, under the mediation of Manoel J. Pereira do Santos, president of the Dispute Resolution Center (CSD-ABPI) of ABPI. The opening table was integrated by the presidents of ABPI, Luiz Edgard Montaury Pimenta, and of the BPTO, Claudio Furtado, in addition to Isabella Pimentel, counsellor of the WIPO Brazil Office, representing the regional director José Graça Aranha.
In his presentation, Ardissone highlighted the BPTO’s experience in Mediation, which, among other reasons, as he explained, was not successful due to the efforts focused on eliminating the patent backlog, which, by the way, continue to be undertaken, successfully until now, by the new management. He also addressed the “coexistence agreements” entered into within the scope of Mediation, an issue that is often controversial, since the agreement between the parties is not always accepted by the BPTO because it needs to contemplate not only the private interest but public issues. However, “the BPTO has accepted most of the coexistence agreements”, Ardissone assured.
Castro Llamas explained that of the Mediation and Arbitration cases managed by WIPO, at least half are covered by contractual clauses. And the effectiveness of out-of-court agreements in resolving conflicts can be measured by the index of closed agreements within the organization: 70% in mediation, while in arbitration a third of the cases resulted in agreements.
The search for extrajudicial solutions for the resolution of conflicts in the scope of the internet is also growing. To date, ABPI’s Dispute Resolution Domain Name Chamber has recorded a total of 386 cases and is the main chamber used by parties to resolve their conflicts under the Administrative System of Internet Conflicts related to Domain Names under the “.br” (SACI-Adm).
You can watch both events in full on ABPI’s YouTube channel. Click here.
