Quoting Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, who in his speech took a stand against patent breaking, the president of ABPI –Brazilian Intellectual Property Association, Luiz Edgard Montaury Pimenta, closed the 41st International Congress on Intellectual Property, the largest of its kind in Latin America. For four days, judges, members of the executive, lawyers, representatives of companies, and entities from Brazil and abroad debated legal and economic cutting-edge issues in the field. “Debates of such great depth were addressed in this event that they deserve further consideration”, stated Montaury Pimenta, referring to federal Judge Marcelo Leonardo Tavares, who in his presentation said: “It is ABPI’s lifelong struggle for Intellectual Property”.
The congress also featured prominent participation by Luís Roberto Barroso, the minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and president of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). In his speech, the minister justified his vote for maintenance of the Sole Paragraph of Article 40 of the Brazilian Industrial Property Law (Law 9,279/96) in the judgment of ADI 5,529, which declared this provision unconstitutional.
The four plenary sessions, eight panels, and 20 table topics carried out in the four days of the event, the second in virtual format, had 1,118 registrations from 30 countries and more than 12,000 page views. The congress was also cited 69 times in articles published in 44 press outlets across Brazil, with emphasis on the newspapers Valor Econômico, O Globo, Folha de São Paulo, and Estado de São Paulo.
The 2nd Patent of the Year Award was promoted by ABPI with support from the BPTO (Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office) and contemplated patents that contribute to sustainable economic development. It was given to Cargill, Incorporated (USA), and inventors Ricardo Chagas da Silva and Hélio Haruo Ushijima. They developed patent PI 1104018-1 entitled “Anti-dusting agent, a process for manufacturing anti-dusting agent for fertilizers and method for reducing dust emission from fertilizers and mining industry”.
