The current status of plant-related IP Rights in Brazil

How to reap the fruits of the protection culture in the agribusiness field

Abstract

Brazil is recognized as having an important economic market and, also due to its biodiversity, provides countless opportunities for technological developments in several fields. In the Industrial Property arena, it may be reaching its most favorable period, since the Brazilian PTO Patent and Trade Mark Office (INPI) has developed measures to overcome the backlog of examination of patent applications and could be placed soon together with the countries that have already achieved a mature protection culture. In the agribusiness field, Brazil stands out in level of importance worldwide, and the correspondent increasing technological development has started to be accompanied by its due protection. Specifically, regarding plant-related IP rights in Brazil, plant-related technology may be protected by patent and plant varieties (or cultivars) by plant variety protection certificate. However, in order to take advantage of all the opportunities and achieve the best protection – duly reaping the fruits of the protection culture in the country, being of particular relevance to the Agribusiness field –, one must have in mind that the Brazilian IP legal framework has particularities when it comes to this matter, as well as it may be more restrictive than the legal framework observed in other jurisdictions. Thus, without the intention to exhaust each theme, the present article presents an overview on the main topics concerning plant-related IP rights in Brazil.