International Cooperation without further Harmonization of Laws

1. International Cooperation without further Harmonization of Laws Jorge Avila INPI – Brasil September 2009

2. IP and Development The nature of IP: tradable exclusive rights, which assign value to innovation and knowledge accumulation Basic implication: disclosure of technological information, business strategies and market opportunities Consequence: the establishment of markets for the different kinds of intangibles, which may foster cooperation and work as gateways for newcomers to participate in the global innovation networks

3. The future of WIPO`s Development Agenda • Transversality: it should maintain its original general nature and avoid being reduced to a specific set of initiatives • Pragmatism: it should concentrate on achievable goals and avoid becoming a disconnected academic agenda • Its aim is to improve (not to weaken) the global, the regional and the national IP systems.

4. Making the IP system work for all • Calibrate the IP system as to maximize market efficiency for technology and other intangible assets • Make the IP system effectively able to foster innovation in all fields • Make the global innovation system open to new-comer participation (new-comers may come from developed countries, indeed)

5. Relevant Dimensions • Legal certainty • Transaction costs

6. Some relevant issues • Quality of IPRs • Patent Office Efficiency • Regional cooperation • Inter-regional / global cooperation

7. Unpredictable patent systems may work as trade barriers, as they may generate legal uncertainty and, therefore, impose high transaction costs, both to innovators and followers Quality value may be destroyed, market efficiency reduced and innovation delayed

8. Patent Office Efficiency • Long delays destroy value • They generate high transaction costs and juridical insecurity • Ways of solution • User involvement • Regional and inter-regional cooperation

9. Regional cooperation among patent and trademark offices • Share experiences • Benefiting from best-practices • Share resources • IT platforms and systems • Capacity building programs • Share of search and examination reports • To enhance quality • To avoid duplication

10. South-American Cooperation Model • Inter-connection and technical communication through a common regional IT platform • Voluntary engagement • No additional harmonization

11. Regional IT platform • Three-level architecture • National front-end IT tools • Interconnection platform • Common database for technological information, search strategies and examination reports • Exchange of IT tools • Adaptation and use of existing integrated solutions and tools: • EPOQUE and EPTOS(EPO) • Patent Scope and IPAS(WIPO)

12. Cooperation • Intercommunication: each office sees what the other offices do • “wiki” approach: successive improvement of search strategies and examination reports • Offer (voluntary): • each country offers support for search and examination whenever able and willing to • Demand (requested): • Each country demands support for search and examination in the fields it needs

13. No additional harmonization • Formal national requirements totally preserved • Decisions taken in the national level according to the respective national legal framework • Beyond TRIPS, multiple different decisions are possible from the same search and examination results

14. Advantages • Preserves autonomy while promotes cooperation • Stimulates debate and progressive improvement • Harmonization as a by-product not an up-front requirement

15. Inter-regional Cooperation • Similar approach can be adopted inter-regionally • Similar approach can be applied to the PCT, among ISA/IPEAs and user offices (with minor changes in the proposed “roadmap”)

16. Thank you !