With a community of more than 20 million users, businesses of about US$ 190 million, and exponential growth of around 7% per year, mobile applications are the craze of the moment in the world of the creative industry. The intellectual property rights involved in the creation and use of these apps were at the center of the debate on “Intellectual Property and Mobile Applications”, a webinar with Noam Shemtov, from the Center for the Study of Commercial Law at Queen Mary University of London, and Dimitier Gantchev, from WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), mediated by Fábio Pereira, partner of Veirano Advogados. The event from the IP Meetings series, promoted by ABPI – Brazilian Intellectual Property Association and WIPO, had the participation of ABPI’s president Luiz Edgard Montaury Pimenta and the regional director of WIPO in Brazil, José Graça Aranha, in its opening table.
In his presentation, Shemtov addressed the various forms of protection for mobile applications – copyright, patents, industrial design, and business secrets – and highlighted the graphical interface as the most important item in the structure of these devices, through which the user interacts with the product. “In most cases, the greatest value is in the design of the graphical interface”, he stated. According to him, code, algorithm, and the internal structure of the app can, in many cases, be better protected by trade secret than by patent. “However, protecting the graphical interface through secrecy is not effective if it is done after the product is launched”, he explained.
Gantchev announced that WIPO is developing some tools for mobile applications, which will soon be available to software developers mainly to answer questions and promote increased revenue in the field of intellectual property. One is for dispute resolution, another for monetization, and a third one refers to a manual on contractual issues. The latter is an IP toolbox for mobile app developers, which should be ready by the end of this year. “Mobile applications are the most dynamic part of the creative industry, and their growth potential is huge”, said the WIPO representative.
The Webinar is available on the ABPI’s Channel on Youtube.
Watch the video, with original audio in English by clicking here.
Watch the video with simultaneous translation to Portuguese by clicking here.
