As a result of the joint efforts of the National Directorate of Industrial Property under the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay (DNPI), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the EU-funded project IP Key Latin America (IP KEY LA), a Practice Paper concerning the examination of absolute grounds for refusal as regards figurative trade marks with purely descriptive words/expressions has been produced.

SMEs account for 99 % of all businesses in the European Union and Latin America. They are a key economic sector in both economies. According to the EUIPO and the OECD, in the last 8 years SMEs have created about 85 % of net new jobs and provided around two thirds of the total private sector employment in the EU. In Latin America, SMEs account for 67 % of employment.

IP Key SEA organized on 10 (Indonesia), 11 (Malaysia) and 12 (Thailand) June 2020 a video conference on the Exchange of Best Practices on Industry Voluntary Measures Against Online IPR Infringements. The virtual session aimed to find effective solutions and remedies to the problems that online IPR infringements can cause.

During the EUIPO IP Mediation Conference 2019, the EUIPO Boards of Appeal, the EUIPO International Cooperation and Legal Affairs Department, IP Key SEA, and SEA national IP office representatives met for the cooperation meeting. IP Key SEA had been working on the outcomes of the meeting and organised the South-East Asia IP Mediation Workshop on 27 May and 18 June 2020.

Throughout the year 2020, the IP Key SEA legal experts will collaborate with the trade mark officials of the three offices, namely the Directorate General of Intellectual Property of Indonesia (DGIP), the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL), and the Department of Intellectual Property of Thailand (DIP) in drafting and reviewing examination guidelines at the national level.