Patents

Inventa International recently reinforced its team with the entry of Marisol Cardoso, as Patent Consultant, and Helga Mota, for the role of Paralegal.

With the hiring of Marisol Cardoso, Inventa International intends to reinforce the consultancy specialized in patent protection to its clients. Marisol has a solid career in Intellectual Property, worked for more than a decade as a Technical Patent Consultant. Currently, she is also attending the Master in Economics and Management of Science, Technology and Innovation at ISEG, in Lisbon.

Background

In 2019, China became the world leader in international patent applications, according to the annual report of the World Intellectual Property Organization, presented in Geneva, having overtaken the United States of America and ended a period of leadership that had lasted since the creation of the WIPO Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 1978.

It is manifest the growing interest of mankind in disruptive themes as Artificial Intelligence (AI). As we have been analyzing, this theme has increased its significance as the inventions reach new and inspiring outcomes. This article intends to analyze if there have been a growing tendency on patent applications related to AI in the European Patents Office or if, besides all the euphoria, we are still far away from a technological boom particulary inventive.

Please be informed that the increase of the official fees for Patents and Designs in South Africa, previously set to occur in October 1st, has now been suspended.

As required by law, the official publication regarding the increase of the official fees is mandatory, however it is yet to take place.

Kindly note that all charges will remain unaltered until further notice.

Inventa International has just reinforced its patents team by hiring Vítor Sérgio Moreira, a Chemical Engineer who’s specialized in patents.

Vítor has a solid background in the field of Chemical Engineering, from which stands out a period of more than ten years working with Patents, at the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in Brazil. He’s also experienced in working with companies and other entities that operate at international level.

The online system enters in force on 18th December of 2017.

On 18th December, the online registrations for all trademarks, patents, renewals and recordals (change of address, name and assignment) will enter in force in Tanzania, meaning that the manual system for filing applications at the Registry will no longer be applicable.

By having an online system, the same will ease the workload at the Registry and the time for registration will be faster.

The Ministry of Trade of the Democratic Republic of Congo announced an increase of about 15% on the country’s official fees regarding intelectual property, that covers trademark, patent and design registrations.

If you wish to know more about this matter, please contact us at africa@inventa.com .

The Canada – European Union Trade Agreement (CETA, from Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) aims to facilitate and reduce barriers to trade, as 98% of the trade tariffs will be removed. The deal was recently ratified by the European Parliament. CETA has several Intellectual Property (IP) related provisions which might affect companies that wish to provide goods across borders and protect their IP assets.

Recently, the Brazilian IP Office has published a set of guidelines that will help to define the technical examinations are conducted in respect to IP Law no. 9279/96 and with the proceedings of the legal act no. 127/9.

These guidelines are divided into 5 chapters:

-    What is considered as invention;

-    Examples of CII, namely the cases of algorithms, on-board software and text processors;

-    Patent requirements;

-    Structure of a CII application.