With the support of the Federação das Indústrias do Estado de São Paulo (Brazil’s largest business association) and the Instituto Nacional de Propiedade Industrial (the national administrator of industrial property rights), IP Key LA organised a two-day webinar on the growing use of blockchain technologies and its advantages for IP enforcement.

The main topic of the event was the interrelation of blockchain technologies and intellectual property, particularly focusing on the potential to improve IP protection and enforcement.

On 11 September 2020, the EU-funded project IP Key South-East Asia (SEA) launched the #YourHealthisPriceless campaign to encourage consumers to buy pharmaceutical products from verified sellers and/or legitimate sources and to be careful when being approached by counterfeiters in online and offline environments. The campaign calls for the audience to share their experiences of counterfeit pharmaceutical products on their social media profiles and provide relevant information on the danger of counterfeit products from this sector.

Between 19-26 October 2020, IP Key SEA organised a series of webinars on ‘IP Offices and the Future of IP Governance in South-East Asia’. The virtual conferences featured six South-East Asian IP offices, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Counterfeiting poses a serious threat to the economy of societies and the safety of their citizens, especially considering the ramifications of the burgeoning relationships between counterfeiters and criminal and/or terrorist networks.

In a workshop organised by IP Key LA, over 180 officials from all Latin America, including customs and law enforcement officers, gathered with European experts to exchange knowledge and discuss best practices in actions against counterfeiting, focussing specifically on small consignments and risk analysis.

On 25 September, Mr Shen Changyu, Commissioner of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and Mr Christian Archambeau, Executive Director of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) held a virtual high-level meeting to discuss IP cooperation matters, namely to review the state of play of the bilateral cooperation activities with CNIPA, the IP Key China project implementation as well as the cooperation within the TM5 and ID5 forums.

IP Key LA is opening registration for a virtual seminar on 20 October focused on the fight against counterfeit medicines by means of IP enforcement.