The World Intellectual Property Day is celebrated every year on April 26. This year, the importance of this date takes on a new meaning in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last weeks, due to the coronavirus pandemic, people have witnessed with astonishment the necessary interruption of several basic services, which are constitutionally assured and regularly provided, among them, services provided by the courts.
In the second half of 2019, the Brazilian Patent Office (BRPTO) started an ambitious plan to eliminate the backlog of unexamined patent applications. The aim of the project is to reduce 80% of the current backlog within two years. Up until March 2020, before the world COVID-19 crisis, the numbers were really impressive. The challenge now is to keep this progress going, while maintaining the examiners working 100% remotely.
On April3, the Brazilian Senate approved a Bill of Law (PL 1179/2020) with several emergency measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. The bill includes a specific rule that postpones the entry into force of the Brazilian General Data Protection Law, the LGPD.
It is still too early to determine when a vaccine against new coronavirus will be available. Even if renowned research centers and pharmaceutical companies could put their best efforts into developing a vaccine against COVID-19, it is obviously necessary to follow the correct clinical protocols to launch a safe and effective product in the market. Specialists say that it will take at least 18 months, which is an extremely optimistic prediction.
Under Brazilian law, the injured party in an infringement lawsuit can request compensatory damages in addition to obtaining a court order that the infringing practice be ceased. Such damages can be divided into two main categories: (i) moral damages, and (ii) material damages, which include actual damages and the loss of profit.
Our immersion in the virtual world is increasing each day. We talk to people, read news, make bank transactions, buy stuff and have fun through the Internet, i.e., we do things that were unimaginable in the recent past.
Our immersion in the virtual world is increasing each day. We talk to people, read news, make bank transactions, buy stuff and have fun through the Internet, i.e., we do things that were unimaginable in the recent past.
In the end of September 2019, Xiaomi launched in China their new mobile smartphone Mi MIX Alpha, which is equipped with one of the most, if not the most, potent processors to date, the Snapdragon 855 plus by Qualcomm. The new mobile smartphone has a completely new industry design as it is almost entirely made of screen. Brazilian fans are anxious for its local launch, the date of which is yet to be announced.
Brazil Patent Invalidation
In a recent court decision in Brazil, involving the questioning of the grant of a Utility Model for silicone implants, the Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro invalidated the referred Patent MU 8600958-3 (silicone prosthesis known for its conical shape), granted by the BPTO to the Plastic Surgeon, Mr. Nelson Noel Cordeiro Lima, when ruling on the invalidity lawsuit filed by the Brazilian company Silimed Indústria de Implantes Ltda. Silimed is one of the leading companies in the silicone implants field in Brazil.