Latin America

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.

World IP Day is commemorated every 26 April. This year, in cooperation with the Latin America IPR SME Helpdesk, IP Key Latin America has launched a campaign to help you identify which Intellectual Property Rights suit your business best, and how it can help you move past the crisis, grow and expand. For a few weeks, IP Key Latin America and the Latin America IPR SE Helpdesk will bring daily information about different types of Intellectual Property Rights:

As of 16 March 2020, the General Directorate of the Industrial Property Registry of Panama (DIGERPI) is part of TMclass and DesignClass. From this day, DIGERPI will use and accept the list of terms from the harmonised database of goods and services (HDB) in TMclass as well as the list of terms from the harmonised database of product indications (HDBPI) in DesignClass.

Following DIGERPI’s decision to use HDB and HDBPI there are now eight non-EU IP offices in both TMclass and DesignClass that use and accept terms from these harmonised databases.

In Latin America and Europe consumers are paying more attention than ever to the quality of agri-food products. Latin America and the EU are large global exporters of agricultural commodities and Brazil and Mexico are among the top five suppliers of agri-food products to the EU. All the more reason to join efforts and work together to enhance our markets.

As part of the 2020 Annual Work Programme, IP Key LA joined forces with the CPVO, GEVES, SENADI and UPOV to hold three events in Quito, Ecuador.

The first event was a face-to-face workshop, ‘PVP Licensing Lab’, which aimed to increase knowledge about plant variety protection (PVP) licensing among public research institutes and small and medium-sized private breeders.