Teamwork & Collaboration - does it work?

PROSUR, a group of nine South American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Uruguay – formed to assist in the improvement of services to local and international users of the IP system will start very soon. In August the pilot project will start collaborative actions in the patent examination system, helping to speed tests throughout the region. The decision was made during a meeting on July 14, 2011 (as informed here), at the headquarters of the INPI, in Rio de Janeiro, with representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

The countries will cross 300 patent applications in selected areas of biotechnology and mechanical system based in the technology platform called WIPO CASE allowing each country to examine the applications selected.

In the same line, the meeting also is looking for the inclusion of brands in the next stages of the PROSUR project.

In this pilot project, experts from each country will exchange information about the examination through online platform. This model of collaboration is said to help examinations to become more flexible and with higher quality.

The results of this first stage will be discussed in late November - will it work? Lets give it a positive thinking, at the end as Jean Shepard lyrics say 'too much to gain to lose'.