Four years of achievements

Approaching the completion of his second term, with important achievements for ABPI, such as the increase in the number of members; digitization of activities; greater visibility in the media and social networks; and record attendance at the annual congresses, with the presence of outstanding personalities from the executive and judiciary, among other legislative and institutional actions, the lawyer Luiz Edgard Montaury Pimenta could enjoy the tranquility of his duty fulfilled. But that’s not how he thinks. “It was four years of intense work, but I will not retire from ABPI; on the contrary, I will always be present and collaborating with our association”, he said.

Below are the main achievements of Luiz Edgard Montaury Pimenta’s four-year term.

INSTITUTIONAL ACTIONS

Executive

• ABPI joins the GIPI (Interministerial Group on Intellectual Property) of the Ministry of Economy (July 2021), having participated in several meetings;
• Open letter to the Ministry of Economy, along with other entities, on the “concern about the fragility of the IP system in Brazil and the delicate structural situation of the BPTO” (August/2021);
• Meeting with the Special Secretary for Productivity, Employment, and Competitiveness of the Ministry of Economy, Carlos Da Costa (2019);
• Formal support for the Patent Backlog Elimination Project, in an official letter sent to the BPTO, and participation in the launch of the program, at the Ministry of Economy, in Brasília (July/2019);
• Formal support, with the necessary adjustments, for Brazil’s accession to the Madrid Protocol, through ABPI Resolution No. 91 (2018);
• Letter to Presidential candidates, with ten proposals for the IP system improvement, sent to candidates for the Presidency of the Republic (2018).

Legislative

• Formal positioning with the Federal Senate regarding Bill 12/2021, which proposes the suspension of Brazil’s obligations to implement or apply sections 1, 4, 5, and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement (April/2021);
• Participation in public hearings: in the House of Representatives Social Security and Family Committee on the granting of non-voluntary patent licenses, promoted by the Senate of the Future Commission, in which ABPI took a stand for maintaining the vetoes of the recent Law 14,200/2021, which provides for the compulsory licensing of patents on vaccines and medicines to face health emergencies; and on Bill 437/2018, which dealt with Anvisa’s (National Health and Surveillance Agency) Prior Consent.
• Presentation of proposals included among the priority projects for legislative follow-up, defined at the 1st General Assembly of the Joint Parliamentary Front in Defense of Intellectual Property and Fighting against Piracy;
• Hiring Parliamentary Advisory Services in Brasília to monitor and keep track of all Intellectual Property Bills (2018).

Judiciary

• Participation as amicus curiae in several lawsuits, especially in ADI 5.529 in the STF (Federal Supreme Court); and arguing against the writ of mandamus filed at the 13th Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro to interrupt the successful plan to fight against the patent backlog (2019);
• Participation in Public Civil Actions:  a proposal initiated by the MPF (Public Federal Ministry) questioning BPTO’s Opinion PROC/DICONS nº 07/2002, which allowed for voluntary changes in patent applications formulated after the application for examination; another regarding the declaration of suspension and subsequent nullity of articles 4 and 5 of Joint Ordinance ANVISA (National Health Surveillance Agency) and BPTO nº 01/2017, which limited the institute by imposing a prior consent of ANVISA in patent applications of pharmaceutical products and processes. (2018);
• Presence at the inauguration of the new President of TRF2 (2nd Region Federal Regional Court), judge Reis Friede (April/2019);
• Meeting with the presidency of the TJ-RJ (Rio de Janeiro State Court of Appeals) on the creation of Chambers specialized in Corporate Law (April/2021);
• Filing of a Structuring Action in the Federal Court aiming at the BPTO’s financial autonomy, using the vote of Minister Dias Toffoli in ADI 5.529, who was very clear in stating that the problem of excessive delay in granting patents in Brazil was due to divestment in the institute, despite it having a surplus (September/2021);

Partnerships

• With the Migalhas portal, one of the most active in the legal area (2020);
• Cooperation Agreements with several foreign associations (equivalent to ABPI), among which the ACHIPI – Asociación Chilena de la Propiedad Intelectual (Chilean Intellectual Property Association); AAAPI – Asociación Argentina de Agentes de la Propiedad Industrial (Argentine Association of Industrial Property Agents); AMPPI – Asociación Mexicana para la Protección de la Propiedad Intelectual (Mexican Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property) and CIPA (the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys – UK).

EVENTS

ABPI Congress

• Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes participated as a speaker at ABPI’s Congress, among other distinguished guest speakers. The Congress had a record attendance of 1,200 participants, more than a hundred foreigners from 30 countries, and more than 12 thousand page views (August/2021);
• Creation of the Patent of the Year Award launched at ABPI’s 40th Congress, and the holding of its 2nd edition at ABPI’s 41st Congress (2020);
• In the spontaneous media, the 41st Congress was mentioned in 171 news in leading media outlets, such as the newspapers Valor Econômico, Globo, and O Estado de São Paulo, among others (August/2021);
• Several Presidents of Latin-American PTOs attended ABPI’s 40th Congress, including the President of the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office – BPTO (2020).

Other events

• Conducting webinars, with international editions, with the participation of executive, legislative, and judicial authorities and experts from different areas, to debate current issues related to IP, such as modernization of the Industrial Property Law, possible changes in TRIPs, NFTs, among others.
• Events promoted by sectional representatives from Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, Bahia and Pernambuco;
• Lunches, round tables, and breakfasts with relevant authorities for the IP community.

Courses

• Launch of CEDUC – Center for Continuing Education, covering various topics, such as copyright, art law, legal management, among others (2019);
• Creation and implementation of the Summer School in partnership with WIPO and the BPTO renewed for another two years.

COMMUNICATION

Institutional media

• Full-page manifesto in the Valor Econômico newspaper and on the Migalhas website with the ABPI’s position on the maintenance of the patent validity period (2020);
• Signed article in the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo defending the maintenance of the Sole Paragraph of Article 40 of the Brazilian Industrial Property Law (November/2020);
• Signed article in Valor Econômico: Será o fim da novela das patentes no Brasil? (Will it be the end of the patent soap opera in Brazil?) (September/2019);
• With the title “S.O.S. PATENTS”, followed by a manifest that occupies an entire page in the Valor Econômico newspaper, on 02/27, ABPI drew attention to the waiting time for the granting of a patent by the BPTO and defended the financial autonomy of the institute (February/2018);
• ABPI was a signatory, along with Interfarma and other entities, of a Demonstration in Support of Technical Independence of the BPTO, published in social media (September/2020).

Internal communication

• Joining social media (2019);
• Launch of the new logo (August/2019);
• Website design renovation, more accessibility, and content (2019);
• Podcast launched in November, featuring IP interviews and discussions with experts and authorities (2019);
• Interviews recorded on video with the founders for the ABPI library collection (2019);
• Creation of an App to access ABPI’s Journal and all its activities (2020);

 OTHER INITIATIVES

• Increase in membership: in the last two years, from 794 to 865 members, equivalent to a 10% growth, despite the pandemic;
• The hiring of an Economic Study with analyses concerning the Brazilian situation in the IP world scenario. With an economic bias, the study “Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development: Challenges for Brazil” was commissioned by ABPI to economist Antônio Márcio Buainain, from Unicamp (2018);
• In the last four years, the Dispute Resolution Domain Name Chamber has considerably increased the number of cases in process. From 35 in 2017, the number increased to 65 in 2020, and there are already 42 cases processed until October this year;
• Creation of the Diversity Committee (2020);
• Headquarters renovation (2020)