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At-a-glance: Instituto Nacional Da Propriedade Industrial Rua Mayrink Veiga, n9 – Centro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Cep: 20090-910 Tel: +55 21 2139 3000 Email: sercom@inpi.gov.br Website: www.inpi.gov.br A prospering economy and Brazil's successful... [more]

A prospering economy and Brazil's successful bids to hold several major sporting events have created a wealth of opportunities for IP lawyers. Over the next five years, the country will be host to the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. With corporations paying huge sums to become official sponsors of these events, preventing other companies from profiting from the hype has become big business.

"All the stadiums will be reviewed [for renovations]. There will be a new subway line and a lot of construction and renovation," said one partner. She added: "For IP lawyers, there will be a lot of licensing work. There will be a lot of ambush marketing and new litigation. The Olympic committee will probably have its own law firm to do its work."

The Olympics alone will cost the Brazilian people an estimated $14.4 billion, assuming that the project runs to budget. However, officials are keen to point out the possible benefits – the Brazilian Tourism Institute (Instituto Brasileiro de Turismo – Embratur) expects foreign visitors to double until 2020 and the government predicts the economy will grow by 5.8% per year between 2011 and 2014.

Several lawyers felt that socialist policies, such as government grants for low-income families who keep their children in school, have also contributed to the country's recent prosperity. "Brazil has a very tight policy relating to banks," said one attorney. "And the middle class is increasing because of social programmes. We do not depend on the external market as much as in previous years."

The decline in poverty has created a new demand for consumer goods – including pirated merchandise. "People are buying more stuff," said another practitioner. "This new middle class is buying a lot of counterfeit goods, especially goods imported from China." As a result of increasing concern with brand protection, many foreign IP firms have identified Brazil as a profitable new market. "One interesting thing in the Brazilian market right now is that several international companies are opening IP services here," said one partner. "In view of the investments that are being made in Brazil, international firms are hoping to enter the Brazilian market and about 10 or 15 firms have opened offices here in the last few months. This is a big change in the Brazilian market because historically we haven't had so many firms."

Brazilian IP lawyers continued to cite bureaucracy as a major problem for their clients, with some applications allegedly taking up to eight years to be processed by the patent office. However, fear of losing foreign investments has created an incentive for politicians to try to reduce delays. The patent office recently announced several changes in infrastructure to improve processing times and lawyers are forecasting an increase in approved patents next year. Nevertheless, some partners feel that expediting the procedure has created issues of its own. "They are making a big effort to speed up decisions, but the quality of the decisions has been going down," said one attorney. "At present we have cases everywhere in the country, in part due to the [declining quality of] the patent office's decisions."

Another issue for IP owners is that laws vary among the country's 26 states. "You need to know about the legislation in each state and select your battle properly," said one attorney. "From my experience, the gaps in Brazil are much bigger than in the US as far as the knowledge of the judges is concerned," he said.

Some US companies came close to losing their Brazilian IP rights altogether in 2010 following a long-running trade dispute over American subsidies to cotton growers. The World Trade Organization ruled that the US was in violation of international rules and approved Brazil's plans to impose $830 million in retaliatory sanctions. These included not charging farmers fees for seeds developed by US companies and breaking American pharmaceutical patents before their expiration, which would have cost US businesses up to $239 million. However, the two countries reached an agreement in April 2010 on the day before Brazil was due to bring the measures into effect. "We had to answer questions from clients about this subject," said one attorney. "It was a major issue here."

Pharmaceutical companies also faced patent problems in Brazil's Supreme Court of Justice that month. In a case which would have ramifications for the industry as a whole, the court ruled that Pfizer's patent for Viagra would expire in June that year. Though Brazilian law protects the exclusivity of an invention for 20 years, the court decided that this period is calculated from the time of its first filing abroad. Since the first patent for Viagra was filed in the UK in June 1990, the Brazilian patent for the drug expired in June 2010. The case involved an appeal by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) against an earlier decision by the Federal Court of the 2nd Region. While this is good news for Brazil's robust generic pharmaceutical industry, multinational developers stand to lose billions. "The feared trend is that they will deny all injunctions and the extension of the patents will be denied also," said one attorney. "All these products will fall into the public domain."