Intellectual property

Refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.
Intellectual property is divided into two categories:

• Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs.

The Legal System

The protection of industrial property was introduced in the country in the last century. Brazil was one of the eleven countries which signed the Paris Convention on 1883, the earliest and most important multilateral treaty in this field. This convention served as a normative instrument to guide the revision of a former Brazilian law of 1830 for patents of invention.

In 1887, a new patent law was enacted in Brazil, based on that international instrument, to make our domestic system compatible with the external one. The country has been, since then, present in discussions about matters concerning industrial property, with a special concern towards the importance and correlation of the patent and trademark system and the effective transfer of technology.

In 1971, a Industrial Property Code was issued in - Law 5772/71, entrusting INPI with new functions and tasks, thereby bringing the Brazilian industrial property system close to those operating in many industrialized countries. The Brazilian code established the protection of industrial property right, by means of:
a - The grant of patents for inventions, utilily models, industrial models and industrial designs;
b - The registration of industrial, trade or service marks and publicity slogans or signs;
c - The prevention of false indication of source;
d - The prevention of unfair competition.

In May 1996, a new law, number 9279, was enacted to regulate rights and obligations relating to industrial property. The new law came into force on 15 May 1997, following the approval of normative acts concerning its implementation. The new law is compatible with the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement (Agreement on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights - which is part of the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation), as well as with other agreements either in place or under discussions in the industrial property field.

Brazilian Membership on international IP treaties

Being such an internationalized system, it is considered of uttermost importance the country's participation in international treaties. Brazil signed the following main treaties in this field:
- International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (Paris Convention), in March 20, 1883.
- Patent Cooperation Treaty;
- Madrid Agreement, for the Repression of False or Deceptive Indications of Source of Goods;
- Berne Convention, for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Words.