Luciano Teixeira: Why is the AIPPI important?
Luiz Henrique Amaral: The association was founded in Brussels, Belgium. The founders were the same creators of International Conventions for the Protection of Intellectual Property, in particular the Paris Convention, which ordinarily gives rise to all the internationalisation of intellectual property rights. It is an entity with a very strong European core, but since the 1950s it has been becoming more international and today it is a fully international entity. There are around 9,000 members. 130 countries and a total of 65 national groups are represented, that is, from 65 countries that have formed local associations and are linked to the AIPPI. Its headquarters is in Zurich, our General Secretariat is there, and the entity takes part in events and meetings in work all over the world. And, in particular, AIPPI's main objective is, on one hand, to promote intellectual property. And, equally important is to try to harmonise national laws and rules so that rights can be internationalised as much as possible. And, in a certain way, to be subject to relatively harmonious protection, among all the powers of all the countries.
Luciano Teixeira: What is the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office – BPTO's role today in Brazil?
Luiz Henrique Amaral: The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI) has an essential function, which is to examine and authorize the granting of these patents, carrying out a thorough examination to verify if it is first patented, if the material really has an important inventive step. And that invention does not exist and has never existed before in nature, that is, to analyse deeply, to examine why it has the characteristics that the invention has, that it brings together what is necessary to be protected. The office lacks resources, it has been depleted. Now, only more recently, the government has been paying more attention to the BPTO. Previously, there was a delay in examinations that was absurd. It was the biggest delay on the planet. There was nothing more delayed than our BPTO. Thanks to the efforts of its president, the board and the examiners, the BPTO managed to bring itself up to date, creating mechanisms to speed up examinations. Excellent, wonderful. But the BPTO is not fully capable of playing an important role. It has new ways of securing investments in innovation and has few examiners. Salaries are out of date, there is no career or salary plan, there is no incentive for productivity, it needs more IT resources and infrastructure. Except the BPTO has a surplus. It has the money. What it collects from user fees, from applicants, is more than enough to cover its expenses.
Luciano Teixeira: So, what is going on?
Luiz Henrique Amaral: So, what happens here in Brazil and has always happened: the BPTO's resources go to the National Treasury and then the National Treasury allocates a percentage of what the BPTO collects to the Federal Government Budget. Today, I think it is giving back 20% of what it collects. The rest stays there at the National Treasury to cover other expenses. And the BPTO is becoming depleted, out of date. It is an important body, which is dealing with cutting-edge technology. So, a body like that must have up-to-date information technology, top-level examiners, clear positions and salaries to encourage these people. The BPTO's people start to improve, they leave for the private sector or they retire. There is no incentive from salary. Now, the BPTO should be able to meet its demand, because the fee that filers pay is more than enough for that. This is a problem that we have in Brazil. So, it's a view of the situation in the country.
Luciano Teixeira: How do you see the intellectual property environment in other Latin American countries? Where is it strong and where is it not? What are the challenges facing Latin America, in general, in relation to intellectual property?
Luiz Henrique Amaral: Well, the AIPPI, which is the association I preside over, is always concerned about formulating protection proposals that are appropriate for new technologies, technologies that are now arriving on the market, which are now being developed and patented. So, AIPPI's vision is a much more global vision, of supporting the entering into of new treaties, defining harmonic rules between countries, guaranteeing adequate protection in all countries, that there is a system throughout the world that encourages inventors, encourages those who bring a new idea onto the market. In this regard, we are always - in the area of patents, trademarks, industrial designs and copyright - discussing matters that are matters of the future, what will come in the future. So, it is in this regard that we are dedicated internationally. Every year we formulate 4 issues that are issues that we think will be a challenge for the future. And these issues are debated in the topic committees and after then they are taken to the Executive Committee, which is a body composed of practically 400 participants, from the different member countries, and we vote to come out with resolutions proposing that - both at the international level, at the UN, the WIPO, the World Trade Organization, the European Union and all the countries that are involved in this process - there is harmony and the same way of interpreting the protection of rights. So, this is what we are always doing internationally. At the regional level, Latin America plays a very important role in intellectual property. We are a secondary market, it is true, but we are a secondary market in development. There are several areas of excellence, not only Brazil, but other countries in the region are able to compete and develop cutting-edge technology and true niches of excellence. And these niches of excellence need to be honoured and protected. It is very important that this happens. For example, in Brazil, the area of biotechnology in the Brazilian agricultural sector is cutting edge. We have various research centres and we are doing very well. In the IT area, in the area of telecommunication applications and technological solutions, technological platforms, Brazil is also doing very well. Today we are the seventh largest technology market in the world. It may seem silly at times, but Brazil is a hub for electronic games and it's a huge market. Fortunately, Brazil is a centre for the creation of electronic games in development, for partnerships in this area. It's very important. We have areas that are also starting to take off and that are very important. In certain segments of the chemical area, we are providing state-of-the-art technologies, we are supplying well-developed technologies. I think we can also create this centre of excellence. Now, one of the requirements for these centres to effectively become important industrial hubs is that you also have strong and functioning intellectual property protection. No one is going to put millions of dollars into researching a new product, a new technology, if they don't have some guarantee that for a period of time they are not going to have a competitor around the corner doing the same thing without having paid anything. This is an important motto that we have here. In developed countries this culture already exists naturally. The founders of the United States, many of them had patents, were inventors and even some of them were intellectual property lawyers. So, this concern to protect the invention, to protect the innovation is in the genes of the United States. Europe also has this already in its DNA. In a different way than Americans, but Europeans are aware of the importance of protecting every single detail of what you are doing because Europe is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. All these treaties that we are talking about, they have their origin in the Industrial Revolution. So, they already come with the history of the people, the nation, society, this concern. What is our concern in Latin America and what are our investments in Latin America? Trying to create this degree of awareness in society, through educational programs, seminars, events, dissemination of information, to bring it into society. For our society to also be aware that we are not just spectators, we have to be actors. We are capable of being an actor. If we embrace the system in a non-refractory way, but use the tools that are available, we will also be able to develop strong and solid new innovation technologies. So, here in our region, our concern is to engage in many agreements and many activities on this educational side.
Luciano Teixeira: Is piracy today a recurring theme on our continent?
Luiz Henrique Amaral: Piracy is a recurring theme not only on our continent. In Asia it is a huge problem and maybe even more so than in Latin America, because there they are the producers of piracy. There are real large-scale criminal organizations there.
Luciano Teixeira: How can this flow from Asia to other countries in the world be cut? Is it possible?
Luiz Henrique Amaral: We work a lot in this area. In Brazil, for example, the Brazilian Commission to Combat Piracy was created, with almost ministerial-level functions to develop this area. We obtained some important instruments in the fight, let's say, against the physical marketing of products. We have improved our rules here in Brazil on border control, created specialised police stations to combat piracy and started to have help from the Federal Internal Revenue Service in the fight. As a result, a movement to reduce piracy has begun. But Brazil has a land border with almost all South America. Sometimes it's a dirt road that crosses and there's no one there to supervise it. Or it's a river that crosses, you get in a boat and cross the river. So it's complicated. It's not an easy country to fight piracy. But, in addition, there is a factor that has added itself to piracy, which is very good for the development of humanity, for commerce. Don't get me wrong. It is perfect and very helpful. But e-commerce has also become an important instrument for piracy activity. In the old days, pirated products were put on the streets, and you could see them. I walked past with the police and saw the product on the streets. Nowadays, through websites, blogs and platforms that are not normally visible, there is an entire commerce that is carried out behind them. So, this activity has gained an additional complexity. The online market creates an additional activity and difficulty. It's very good, very positive. In no way is this any criticism, on the contrary, it's necessary to encourage more and more e-commerce. But, on the other hand, it has made it more complicated and now more appropriate tools must be developed to combat digital piracy.
Luciano Teixeira: Are laws keeping up with intellectual property? What are the methods and what are the gaps and which countries have the most adequate legislation today?
Luiz Henrique Amaral: I think that a system that is quite sophisticated and has been responding very well to these demands is the European system. It has been developed intensely. To give you an idea, apart from the European Commission, it is the largest body in the European Union. It is the body that has more employees, that has more infrastructure, that has more investments. You see the importance that is given in Europe to this issue. There is now an important movement that concerns me, but it is an important movement that we cannot ignore, which is IPI 5. What is IPI 5? The five main intellectual property markets are finding that the dialogue of all countries in the world, through a UN body, which is WIPO, is too slow, too time-consuming and cannot meet the necessary speed. So, these patent, activity model, industrial design agencies and offices, from the five main markets are increasingly coming together to standardise and respond to the demand. They are: the United States, Japan, Korea, Europe and China. So, what worries us is that the multilateral alignment should be greater and the WIPO and the World Trade Organization quicker to meet the demands that exist. Because it's a fact. Technology and development happen and then legislation follows behind, trying to solve the problem. So, there is this demand in the Brazilian context and there are some bottlenecks that need to be addressed. The first bottleneck that needs to be addressed urgently, rather than changing the law, is to give structure to the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO). Then there are some developments that must take place in our Industrial Property Law. It's a law from 1996, it's not even that old, but, as I told you, innovations are very fast, and I think we could miss the train of history in Brazil if we don't act quickly. I will cite an example. Brazil establishes that biological material isolated from nature cannot be protected because it's not material. What seems, at first, to be a very cool factor, no one will be able to protect Brazilian biodiversity. Well, it's true, but, on the other hand, we have very advanced technology to isolate biological material, to do the research necessary to isolate biological material that exists in nature, but isolated. What we don't have is the ability to transform this isolated material into a commercial product. These are the only central economies that are easier to develop. So, when we say that we will not allow protection, we are basically saying that we will not be able to protect Brazilians. Foreigners will be able to protect the final product that is in their country. We, here, are not going to be able to protect our material so that a Brazilian who has researched and developed an isolation of this material will obtain some benefit. It's an example that shows that sometimes what seems to be a solution is, in fact, hindering.
Luciano Teixeira: How is the issue of intellectual property on top of moral rights? What is it? What are the challenges?
Luiz Henrique Amaral: Here we are talking about copyright. The rights to original literary, artistic creations, such as paintings, sculptures, pictures or even architectural works, are protected by copyright. Copyright is divided into an economic/property right, which is the right to earn money, to monetize this work. I mean, an artist who writes a song has exclusivity to the song and whoever plays that song would have to pay him. So, it's a property right. At the same time, there are moral rights. These are rights that authors, individuals, have in order to protect certain activities. For example, the integrity of the work, wanting it to remain unpublished, wanting to have their name always associated with their work, demanding and being able to take the work out of circulation. These are moral rights, and they make certain sense and even good sense, especially for works that are a little more classical, such as paintings, music and literature. But even these works are undergoing a profound transformation. In the world, there are now two copyright systems. A system that is Anglo-Saxon, which is exemplary, that mainly involves England, the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, all the countries that have some origin of their rights coming from England, such as India, which is a very important country that does not recognise moral rights, it only recognizes an economic/property right, copyright. There is, then, at the international level, a conflict between the countries that recognise it and the countries that do not recognise it. The same work is treated in one country one way, in another country another way. This is bad for harmony. So, what the AIPPI is proposing is to discuss, to deepen the discussion of moral rights, especially for functional works or in works that have a high technological content, like all this internet, NFT and blockchain content, which ends up using these rights as well. And which, despite having worldwide dissemination on the internet, without limit, in each country ends up being subject to different protection schemes which can even be bad for owners of the works. So, what we are going to discuss is what we should do to find a rule that harmonises the countries and avoids this conflict.
Luciano Teixeira: What is the future of intellectual property in Brazil, Latin America and the world?
Luiz Henrique Amaral: I think the evolution of society requires strong intellectual property. Intellectual property is an essential tool, because it guarantees that those who have invested time, money, and life, developing something new for the benefit of society, will be able to enjoy this right, power and incentive for what they have done and for what they continue to do. So, for me, intellectual property is a key part of the economic development of countries and society as a whole.
