With more than 340 integrated companies operating in the production of software and Information and Communication Technology (ICT), 13 thousand employees, and revenues of R$ 2.6 billion in 2020, the Porto Digital technology park, located in the central area of Recife, is a living ecosystem of innovation. The data are contained in the webinar held on June 10 th , on “Protection of Innovation through Intellectual Property”. Organized by Gustavo Escobar, who is ABPI’s Sectional representative in Pernambuco, the event featured presentations by Gabriel Leonardos, vice president of ABPI; Pierre Lucena, president of Porto Digital and professor at UFPE (Federal University of Pernambuco); Eduardo Bemfica, head of the BPTO’s Northeast Regional Diffusion Office; and Vitor Palmela Fidalgo, director of Inventa International/Portugal and Professor at the Faculty of Law of Lisbon.
ABPI’s vice president, Gabriel Leonardos, briefly explained the intellectual property system, highlighting patents and copyright, with an emphasis on Brazilian biodiversity and the so-called creative industry. “The entire creative economy depends on copyright protection”, he stated. At the end of his presentation, Leonardos defended Brazil’s independence in vaccine production and warned of the inadequacy of compulsory licensing as a panacea to solve public health problems. “Patent rights contain in themselves the legitimate instrument that balances the system, which is now being considered, due to the pandemic, to resolve with the provision of compulsory licensing”.
In his presentation, Lucena highlighted that thanks to the innovation ecosystem adopted, which includes open innovation, Porto Digital has grown by 50% in the last two years, with an emphasis on intellectual property with established companies. According to him, the strength of this growth is in the partnerships and the integrated action between the companies. “Of the ten largest companies allocated to the pole, seven are from Pernambuco”, he added.
Despite the strength of its technological pole and incentive to intellectual property, Pernambuco still holds the eighth position in the national ranking of patents, with 216 deposits, and ninth place in trademarks, with 6,373 registrations, which guarantees it the modest 11 th position in IP assets, according to data presented by Eduardo Bemfica, the head of the BPTO’s Northeast Regional Diffusion Office. For him, this performance is due to an old image of a bureaucratic BPTO, which, he emphasized, no longer exists. “Today a software certificate comes out in a week”, he explained.
Palmela Fidalgo ended the webinar talking about the international protection system for intellectual property assets and said. “The basic rule is, first protect, and then internationalize”. He highlighted the legal mechanisms for registering patents, such as the PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty), and trademarks, such as the Madrid System, and also listed the international treaties for the protection of copyright, such as the Bern Convention and the TRIPS Agreement.
ABPI’s webinar had the support of the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association), Porto Digital, Sebrae and Fecomércio and the participation of Ticiano Gadelha and Gisela Peres, from the OAB of Pernambuco.
