During an online
ceremony on 23 November, EPO President António Campinos was joined by Ms Ana Margarida Bandeira, President of the Council of INPI Portugal,
and Mr Cláudio Vilar Furtado, President of the Council of INPI Brazil, to launch
an international patent training event addressing the needs of the Community of
Portuguese Language Countries. The three-day event covered a broad range of
patent-related topics and was attended by more than 130 participants from
Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique and São Tomé
and Príncipe. It drew on synergies with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO)
and Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI), of which some
of the participants‘ countries are also members.
The event is intended to mark the beginning of a
long-term training programme and to help develop capacity and competences
within the national IP offices of the states where participants are based. This
will support them in implementing international best practices in search and
examination and help raise awareness of IP among a broader audience, including professionals
at universities, technology transfer offices and incubators. The training emphasises
the importance of patent knowledge and the PATLIB network, as well as enabling national
IP offices to support local innovators more effectively, especially when they consider
how best to protect and leverage the commercial value of their inventions.
The training also aims at greater levels of efficiency
by helping to avoid the duplication of efforts. Hence the importance of
multilateral co-operation between IP offices and the joint commitment to developing
the patent system in the Lusophone community. Mr Campinos
warmly thanked all partners for their invaluable contributions, including the co-organizers
INPI Portugal and INPI Brazil, as well as those organisations that supported
the event: ARIPO, OAPI and the EU-funded AfrIPI project.
The first Lusophone Conference on Industrial Property
organised by the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) is
scheduled to take place as a hybrid event on 26 April 2022 at the Lisbon premises
of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP). The conference offers
a further opportunity to share and disseminate best practices among IP offices
in Portuguese-speaking countries.