1. Local laws and regulations on intellectual property protection

Since the 1970 s, Brazil's government have issued the "industrial property" (1971) (including trademark and patent), the copyright law (1998), the computer program of copyright protection act (1998), the biological safety "(1995)," the law "(1997) and other laws and regulations, protect and encourage knowledge innovation, promoting national economic growth.

In recent years, Brazil has constantly revised and improved the patent system to provide more effective legal protection for intellectual property rights. In 1996 Brazil introduced a new system of industrial property and amended the Industrial Property Law, which came into effect on May 15 of the following year.

The Brazilian State Intellectual Property Office in the city of Rio DE Janeiro is responsible for the examination and approval of patent applications, registration of trademarks and examination and approval of imported technology. The bureau, part of Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, has a staff of about 600 and processes nearly 30,000 intellectual property applications a year. 2004, and has set up a in Brazil by the government, enterprises, social organizations of institutions - "crack down on piracy and stop the infringement of intellectual property rights" of the national committee, whose members from seven government departments and federal police, federal highway transport and federal tax bureau, there are four representative of the relevant industries and two congressional delegation.



[Patent Protection] The legal basis of Brazilian patent protection is article 5 of Chapter 29 of the Constitution and Industrial Property Law No. 9279/96. Any natural person or legal person may file a patent application or register an industrial design. The patent application is valid only within the territory of Brazil, and the State gives effective protection to the patent. An inventor may apply in Brazil for a patent for invention, a patent for utility model or a patent for design in respect of his or her invention-creation. It is allowed to apply for patents on the production methods of chemical products, medicine and food, and for genetically modified microorganisms. However, the following items shall not be granted patent rights: not conforming to the requirements of ethics and civility (the invention-creation violates the religious belief), disturbing the social public order (the invention-creation violates the law and public safety), damaging the public welfare (the invention-creation is not conducive to health); Substances obtained by means of nuclear transformation (only those devices, machinery, devices, extraction methods, etc. which do not alter the physical and chemical properties of the product or substance may be patented); All or part of an organism (with the exception of genetically modified organisms that meet three conditions: novelty, creativity and practicality, which cannot be a mere discovery).



Brazilian trade secrets are mainly protected by Article 195 of the Industrial Property Law. In addition, international treaties such as the Criminal part of the Brazilian Law on Unfair Competition, the Paris Convention and the Agreement on the Protection of Investment-related Intellectual Property rights also protect trade secrets. It is considered a crime to disclose, develop or use secrets, information or useful data in the industrial, commercial or service fields without authorization, directly or indirectly, by illegal or fraudulent means, through the acquisition of a contract or employment relationship (even after the contract is terminated). Except for information or data already known to the public and knowledge familiar to persons with general technical skills.



[Trademark Protection] The protection of trademarks is provided for in Chapter 5 of the Constitution of Brazil and industrial Property Law No. 9279/96. International treaties such as the Paris Convention and the Agreement on the Protection of Investment-related Intellectual Property Rights signed by Brazil are also the legal basis for the protection of trademark rights.

"Industrial property law" the 9279th / 96 part, "visually perceived with distinguishability of which is prohibited by the laws, and not for logo, used to distinguish goods or services, others, including the shape of the products and packaging" can be registered, but the trademark is only the name of the color or colors cannot be registered, unless their use or combination with distinguishability. The scope of protection of the trademark right includes: it is forbidden to imitate or copy the identifiable factors in the third party's trademark, or to be associated or confused with the names owned by others; Unauthorized use of another's name or likeness; Confusion or similarity with a word or title in a copyrighted literary, artistic or scientific work; Similar to industrial design rights.

The trademark owner shall register the trademark with the National Industrial Property Association. Before registration, it is necessary to carry out a prior investigation of the trademark in order to understand whether there is a registered trademark in the same business scope. But the procedure is not mandatory. The appropriate application documents may be used in applying for a registered trademark, on which the trademark and the relevant information of the applicant shall be recorded. The applicant may go to the headquarters, branch offices or representative offices of the State Industrial Property Office to carry out prior investigation of the trademark registration. An applicant for a registered trademark in Brazil may be a Brazilian citizen or a foreigner. When applying for the registration of a trademark in Brazil, the registrant must produce the documents required by the laws of the country to prove the legal status of the registrant, and at the same time produce the documents certifying the business scope of the registrant. The term of protection of a registered trademark shall be within 10 years from the date on which the registered trademark is granted, and may be renewed upon expiration. If the trademark is not used for 5 consecutive years after registration, the trademark right will be lost. The owner of a registered trademark enjoys the exclusive right to use it throughout the country. A trademark registrant or applicant shall have the right to assign its registration or registration application, and shall have the right to authorize others to use or maintain the integrity or reputation of its trademark. Well-known trademarks are also protected. The trademark right may be used in the categories for which the proprietor applies for approval, or in similar or controllable related goods or services. Users of unregistered trademarks who have used the trademarks in good faith for more than 6 months prior to the filing date have priority in obtaining the trademarks.



[Copyright Protection] Decree No. 9.610 (February 19, 1998) is the Copyright Law. There are eight chapters, article 115: Chapter 1, initial provisions; Chapter two, intellectual works; Chapter III, Copyright; Chapter four, the use of intellectual works and sound recordings; Chapter Five, adjacency rights; Chapter 6, Association of Copyright and Neighboring Rights Holders; Chapter VII punishments for copyright violations; Chapter VIII. Final tentative Terms.

This Law is intended to regulate and protect copyright, including all rights enjoyed by authors and other rights related thereto. The copyright of a foreign citizen is protected by Brazilian law, provided that the country has a reciprocal agreement, convention or treaty with Brazil. This Act applies to Citizens of Brazil or citizens of countries that grant Brazilian citizens or residents reciprocal conditions in respect of the protection of copyright and neighbouring rights.

(1) According to the provisions of the law, the definitions related to copyright are as follows: (1) Publication: the provision of literary, artistic or scientific works to the public in various forms with the consent of the author or other copyright holders; (2) Transmission or dispersal: transmission of sound or images by means of broadcast radio waves, satellite signals, cables or other conductors, optical media or other electromagnetic media; (3) rebroadcast: one unit simultaneously rebroadcast the transmission content of another unit; (4) Distribution: distribution to the public of original or copies, translations or sound recordings of literary, artistic or scientific works by means of sale, lease or other property or transfer of ownership; Information exchange: to make the public know the work by means other than the above distribution; Reproduction: The use of physical media, including permanent or temporary electronic storage media or other carriers, to reproduce literary, artistic or scientific works and their sound recordings; Forgery: unauthorized copies; Works: cooperative works, by two or more co-creators; Anonymity, where the author's name is not indicated on the work at the author's discretion, or the author is unknown; Pseudonym, where the author hides his real name and USES a pseudonym; An unpublished work, an unpublished work; A work published posthumously, and a work published posthumously; An original work, a work of original creation; Derivative works, new works based on original works; A collective work shall be published in the name of a legal person or entity without legal personality and shall be jointly created by several authors if the work is under the auspices of and under the responsibility of the legal person or entity without legal personality; An audiovisual work consisting of video with or without sound, intended to make the work independent of a broadcast medium, an initial or subsequent supporting medium, or a transmission medium. (9) Pet-recording: any recording of performances or other sounds, and any form of recording other than audiovisual works; Editor: a natural or legal person that has the exclusive right to reproduce and publish a work within the scope of the contract of publication; Producer: a natural person or legal person who, through any medium or carrier, organizes and assumes economic responsibility for the production of sound recordings or audiovisual works; Broadcasting: The broadcasting unit transmits sound and combination of sound and image to the public by means of coded signals through wireless transmission (including satellite transmission) equipment. The public can listen after decoding. The decoding mode is provided by the broadcasting unit; Artist: all actors, singers, musicians, ballerinas, or others who perform, sing, recite, read, or translate literary, artistic, or folk works. A legally protected intellectual work is a spiritual work, in any form or on any tangible or intangible carrier, that is known or may be invented in the future. It includes: articles extracted from literary, artistic or scientific works; Meetings, lectures, sermons and other similar forms; Plays and musicals; Dance and stage plays, the performance of which is fixed on a written or other form of carrier; A piece of music with or without lyrics; Audio-visual works with or without sound, including cinematography; Photographic works and works produced in other similar forms; Drawing, painting, printing, sculpture, lithography and movement of artistic works; Illustrations, maps and other similar works; Design drawings, sketches, plastic works related to geography, engineering, topography, architecture, landscape, etc. A new intellectual creation formed by modifying, translating, or otherwise morphing an original work; Software; Anthologies, compilations, anthologies, encyclopedias, dictionaries, databases, and other works formed by selection, organization, or adjustment of content constitute new intellectual works.

(2) The following are not protected by copyright law: ideas, standardized procedures, systems, methods, schemes or mathematical concepts; The plan or rules, games, or business of intellectual activity; Blank forms and instructions for filling in scientific or non-scientific information; The text of treaties, conventions, laws, decrees, regulations, judgments and other official ACTS; Information widely used by the public, such as calendars, diaries, reference documents or subheadings; Names and titles; The industrial or commercial use of the ideas contained in the work.

(3) The following shall not constitute an infringement of copyright: A copy: a news article or article published in a newspaper or periodical, which refers to the name of the author and the source of the work; A speech delivered at a public meeting, as published in a newspaper or journal; Photographs or other forms of graphic representation to which he or his successors have expressed no objection; Works of culture, art or science reproduced through the braille system or otherwise for the use of blind persons only and not for commercial gain; (2) To make copies of some chapters of the work, only one copy of the sample, for the private use of the replicator, not for commercial purposes; (3) To refer to a section of a work in a book, newspaper, magazine or other information medium in a proper form for the purpose of research, criticism or debate, and to indicate the name of the author and the source of the work; (4) A copy of a work published in whole or in part for the classroom teaching of the school, without explicit authorization, has not been published or distributed; Commercial organizations display literary, artistic or scientific works, sound recordings, radio and television works to customers through equipment to be sold; 6. Theatrical performances or musical performances in places of family entertainment or educational institutions with the purpose of preaching alone and not for profit; Use of literary, artistic or scientific work for the purpose of producing judicial or administrative evidence; The existing works are partially or completely copied, the copy itself does not constitute a new work, does not affect the normal use of the works, does not cause unreasonable losses to the legitimate interests of the author.

(4) the author or his successor, through licensing, franchising, commission or other ways of legal recognition, by or on behalf of himself to a third party all or part of the transfer of copyright, but there are the following conditions: (1) all means a transfer all rights of the author, but works of personal rights and legal rules shall not be transferred except right; (2) All transfers of copyright must be in the form of a written contract; (3) If the copyright has not been transferred by a written contract, the deadline for the transfer shall not exceed five years; (4) The assignment cannot be effective unless the parties sign a contract, except as otherwise provided by law; (5) The act of transfer must be implemented under the circumstance that the contract already has a specific mode of use; If there is no specific mode of use stipulated in the contract, the interpretation of the contract will be limited to meet the most basic purpose of the contract.



Software is a computer program. Decree-law 9.609 (February 19, 1998). The Computer Program Copyright Protection Act consists of six chapters and 16 articles.

(1) Chapter I: Initial Terms. A computer program is an expression of a series of instructions in a natural or coded language that is stored in a device, tool, or other peripheral and USES numerical or similar techniques to process data mechanically and make it behave in a particular manner and purpose.

(2) Chapter II: Copyright protection and registration. According to the provisions of this Law, the protection of intellectual property rights in computer programs refers to the copyright and adjacent rights granted by legislation to written works. Personal rights generally do not apply to computer programs, but copyright owners may claim ownership of computer programs. No one may rewrite, distort or otherwise modify computer programs without authorization of the copyright owners. The protection period of the computer program is 50 years, commencing on January 1 of the second year after the computer program is published or created. No registration is a prerequisite for the protection of copyright in this Law. Foreigners living abroad (as long as the copyright is granted in the country of origin of the computer program) have the same rights as foreigners and Brazilians living in Brazil.

(3) Chapter THREE: Guarantee for the use of computer programs. The contract of use of computer program, corresponding accountant certificate or material object package should state technical guarantee period, with user can read easily prevail. Any person, whether holder or seller, who sells computer programs nationwide (within the technical Warranty period) has the obligation to provide users with additional technical services and instructions relating to the operation of the programs.

(4) Chapter IV: Technology Use, Sales and Transfer Agreement. The use of a computer program may be the subject of a licensing agreement. Licensing agreements relating to foreign computer programs, taking into account the payment of taxes and other expenses, shall state the respective liability for payment and the remuneration of the foreign holder. The party using foreign currency as a means of payment shall keep documents and materials that can prove the fairness of the payment and comply with the provisions of this article for a period of five years.

With regard to the technology transfer of computer programs, the State Industrial Property Office will be responsible for registering the relevant agreements so that they become valid for third parties. For registration under these Terms, the Franchisor and licensee must submit complete documentation, in particular source code, memoranda, internal function descriptions, charts, flow charts, and other technical materials related to the transfer of technology.

(5) Chapter V: Torts and punitive measures. Infringing the copyright of a computer program shall be punishable by imprisonment for not less than six months but not more than two years, or by a simple fine. Infringing content includes the reproduction, in any form, of all or part of a computer program for commercial use without the express authorization of the author or his representative. The same penalty shall apply to the sale, exhibition, distribution, purchase, concealment or storage of the original or copy of a computer program for commercial purposes. Copyright infringement against computer programs