Established on August 16, 1963, originally as the Brazilian Association for Intellectual Property (ABPPI), the organization, now recognized as the Brazilian Intellectual Property Association (ABPI), commemorates its 60th anniversary with eyes on the future.
Winds of renewal have been blowing strongly in ABPI’s actions. The association is engaged in debates concerning the direction of the digital society, generative productions of artificial intelligence, creative disruption, and the fight for diversity and social inclusion.
Advocating for the rights of minorities is part of the entity’s daily work. ABPI’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee hosts events that value citizenship, fight against racism, and promote inclusion and equal opportunity in the job market.
It’s no coincidence that the theme of ABPI’s 2023 annual congress, with its plenaries, panels, and table topics, is “Intellectual Property as a Promoter of Social Equality.”
The International Congress on Intellectual Property reaches its 43rd edition, discussing cutting-edge intellectual property topics and solidifying its place as the most significant event of its kind in Latin America.
Present and future intellectual property rights are constant themes in ABPI’s events. Debates featuring renowned experts take place through webinars or in-person events, including seminars, roundtables, lunch talks, or meetings of its study committees.
ABPI brings together companies, research institutes, universities, law firms, and industrial property agents from Brazil and abroad. Throughout its existence, the association has disseminated knowledge with direct impacts on Brazilian innovation and development.
As a national group, ABPI represents AIPPI – International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property – in Brazil, the leading global entity for the study and promotion of intellectual property. It also partners with the LIDC – International League of Competition Law, and the Global IP Network, which brings together national IP associations of the world’s leading economies.
In recent years, ABPI established a Corporate Committee to discuss specific company issues and introduced a Continuing Education Center (CEDUC) to offer courses in the intellectual property field.
On other action fronts, ABPI strengthened its study committees with new thematic groups and expanded to 17 sectional representations, now present in major cities across Brazil.
The Patent of the Year Award, which encourages patenting inventions, is already in its fourth edition.
Published since 1992 and bimonthly edited, with articles by experts from Brazil and abroad, ABPI’s Journal is a major reference in legal circles.
Following the success of the first two editions, ABPI’s Dispute Resolution Center (CSD-ABPI) – consisting of the Dispute Resolution Domain Name Chamber (CASD-ND), the Mediation Chamber (CMed-ABPI), and the Arbitration Chamber (CArb-ABPI) – held the 3rd Moot, the first Brazilian Intellectual Property Arbitration competition.
Among its various activities, ABPI mobilizes work groups for preparing recommendations and opinions, including amicus curiae, providing scientific and legal support.
Over six decades, ABPI has engaged in significant matters of Brazilian development. It has been present in debates on the Profit Remittance Law, Antitrust Law, and Industrial Property Code.
In the 1980s, through its Study Committees, ABPI provided important technical and legal contributions to the elaboration of the Industrial Property Law (Law 9.279/96).
ABPI advocates for improvements in the Brazilian intellectual property system. The financial autonomy of the BPTO (Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office) is one of the entity’s priority objectives. Such is the goal of the Structuring Public Civil Action brought by ABPI before the 31st Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro, urging the government to allocate necessary resources for the BPTO’s proper functioning.
In the institutional realm, ABPI has relentlessly fought to reduce the patent backlog – the stock of pending patent applications awaiting examination at the BPTO. The backlog, which caused legal uncertainty and hindered investment in innovation, is now reduced to acceptable levels.
ABPI has an active voice in discussions on legislative improvement with Congress, government authorities, and the Judiciary, including within the scope of the Interministerial Group on Intellectual Property (GIPI), where it sits as a civil society member.
ABPI celebrates its 60 years with faith that promoting innovation is the key to Brazil’s development and the construction of a fairer and more inclusive society.
Long live ABPI!
