IP Key LA, WIPO and Colombian authorities organized seminar about Enforcement of IPR

Since the beginning of the project, the work of IP Key Latin America has had a strong focus on promoting legal expertise in the field of Intellectual Property throughout Latin America, with the purpose of implementing theory and best practices in the area of intellectual property, drawing on the skills and expertise of judges, public prosecutors, court experts, lawyers and IP attorneys practicing before their national courts, as well as law enforcement officers working in the field. Following these objectives, IP Key Latin America collaborated, with WIPO, SIC, DNDA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the organization of the “Regional Seminar on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property for Judges and Officials with Jurisdictional Powers” that took place in Bogota, Colombia between July 31st - August 1st.

During this event, IP Key expert Ana María Pacón, presented the structure and objectives of the IP Key LA Project, its scheduled activities and the importance of the enforcement of IPR for the project. Furthermore, she shared the experience of the European Observatory on Infringements of IPR, its history and legal basis, the activities conducted between 2014 and 2018, its most relevant studies, together with the conclusions and statistics obtained and the tools it makes available.

The event counted with the presence of two European experts: The President of the Trade Union Court of the EU Enrique García-Chamón, focused his presentation on the experience of European judges with the IPR enforcement, fields of competence of the Courts and Tribunals of EU Trademarks, the relationship with EUIPO and with the General and Justice Courts of the European Union, and shared some relevant cases. The second European guest, customs expert at the Spanish Tax Agency, Antonio Lloret Macián, who explained border measures in the European Union, IT systems available for intervention requests processing and management of goods detention procedures, as well as EU statistics and strategies in custom field.

Andean Community Judges as well as participants from other Latin American countries had the opportunity to listen to 15 other interventions from regional and international experts, all aimed at building a comprehensive vision of the current situation of IPR enforcement in the Americas and the EU.