Reforming Paten Law: the debate continues

On 20th October, the Associação Brasileira da Propriedade Intelectual (ABPI)’s president spoke at a public hearing at the Comissão de Constituição e Justiça e Cidadania (Committee on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship) of the House of Representatives. In the speech it was clear that the ABPI opposed to reform to be brought by Bill 139/1999 and 5402/13 due to these not having sufficient technical analysis and without the necessary analysis discussions with parties involved such as the pharma industry and researchers. The proposed changes are according to ABPI, substantial changes to Brazilian Patent Law N. 9279 of 14 May 1996 (Law 9279/96).

What is going on?

What my mum think I do!

On 4th October our tanguera and Brazilian friend Magda Voltolini, wrote a guest post on the topic ‘Brazilian Politicians will vote for new Pharma Laws’. Here she notes that the Bill aims to modify “the provisions concerning rights awarded by the patent and conditions that grant compulsory licenses including those relating to pharmaceutical products and processes.” (full post here).

ABPI’s position
ABPI’s opposing to the reforms, points out the “technical failures of each of the ten amendments proposed in the Bills that, if approved, will impact negatively on the country's economy on innovative initiatives and investments in R & D”.

Rebutting allegations of patent abuse, ABPI’s president noted that the present Law already contains safeguards against abuses by patent. She pointed out that in Brazil there exist a misunderstanding with the term ‘extension’ referring to the term of patents, noting that ‘extension’ is an act of public administration, and “only granted when there is a fulfilment of all legal requirements”. Finally, she emphasized that any debate on patent should always be aimed at the modernization of IP infrastructure and R & D.

Source ABPI.