Justice Luiz Fux, and Deputy Chief of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), recommended the use of prohibitory injunction – a measure that prevents the practice of offense, interpreted as a contrary act to material law, and provided for in article 497 of the Civil Procedure Code, and in article 84 of the Consumer Protection Code – for cases of counterfeiting and other actions of violation of intellectual property, which increase in times of virtualization. Justice Luiz Fux participated in the virtual debate organized by ABPI – the Brazilian Intellectual Property Association and the National Law School of the Rio de Janeiro Federal University (FND) in order to raise donations for a group of 244 FND students in situations of extreme vulnerability. The amount raised exceeded the established donation goal.
The event “COVID-19 and the future of the courts of law” also brought together the Justices of the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) Luis Felipe Salomão and Benedito Gonçalves, and was mediated by Appellate Judge Cezar Augusto Rodrigues Costa. ABPI’s President Luiz Edgard Montaury Pimenta and several authorities from the legal field and academia also attended the webinar. When addressing the increase in electronic commerce and virtualization, such as e-commerce, Justice Luiz Fux explained that he is interested in the area of Intellectual Property and recalled that he addressed the topic at ABPI’s 39th International Congress on Intellectual Property last year, when he delivered the inaugural lecture of the event. “There is a fertile ground for the practice of offense at these times, and it is necessary to use prohibitory injunction, a claim for a judicial defense that does not wait for the damage to occur, but prevents it from occurring”, the Minister stated.
In his speech, Justice Benedito Gonçalves explained that the “Citizenship Court”, as the STJ is called, issued several resolutions to adapt the Judiciary to pandemic times, and cited Resolution No. 4, which prioritized online trials and simplified the guidelines, as well as Resolution No. 9, which resumed procedural deadlines, established the videoconference system and face-to-face sessions. “Online trials will be the trend going forward”, said the Justice. “A mixed model must be provided, both face-to-face and online”, he explained.
Justice Luis Salomão noted that the new times offer less judicialization of causes. “A huge field is opening up for the work of lawyers, a new universe, mainly in mediation and arbitration. For him, judges must improve management. The Justice explained that the legal system is full of lawsuits. He detailed that the STJ receives 10,000 annual appeals for each minister, which represents about one thousand monthly processes, 40 daily processes, or five appeals per hour. “An aftermath that will remain after the pandemic is remote working. The spaces of the courts will have to be rethought, but we must preserve some face-to-face practices since with online procedures there is a great loss in quality, it becomes impoverished”.
Salomão explained that at FGV – Getúlio Vargas Foundation, where he is a professor, a study is being developed rearding Artificial Intelligence to improve the management of the Judiciary. “We have to resize our spaces, with distance working, assessing the productivity of services in a post-pandemic scenario, virtualizing some jobs, but always observing some face-to-face issues which are necessary for trials”, he concluded.
