From September 22nd to the 24th, in Jalisco, Mexico, leaders from 16 Latin American countries, together with authorities from European Union organizations, participated in the Regional Conference on Geographical Indications. Being this event one more effort by IP KEY LA to promote dialogue between the two parties, in order to implement the best practices and policies in the region.

The official launch of the second phase of IP Key Latin America took place in Mexico City on 27 April. The project aims to increase intellectual property protection and enforcement throughout Latin America.

Top representatives of Latin American national IP offices attended the event. The Mexican government was represented by Alfredo Rendón, Director General of the Mexican Institute of Intellectual Property (IMPI).

IP Key Latin America organised a seminar in Quito on 25 May to discuss the current state of plant variety protection in Ecuador, in collaboration with the EU Delegation to Ecuador, the CPVO and SENADI.

The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism of Colombia has published a practice paper on figurative marks containing descriptive/non-distinctive words.

O projeto europeu lançou 4 estudos de impacto econômico em países-chave da região como parte de suas contribuições para o cenário local de propriedade intelectual

The ‘Registro Nacional’ of Costa Rica (RN) has just published a Practice Paper concerning the graphic representation of industrial designs.

The RN has analysed and found common ground with the criteria developed under the Common Communication on the Common Practice – Graphic Representation of Designs (CP6).

Em setembro de 2017, quando começou a fase inicial do primeiro projeto de propriedade intelectual (PI) implementado pelo Instituto de Propriedade Intelectual da União Europeia (EUIPO) na América Latina, parecia um esforço ambicioso.

For the first time in the region, the Andean examination practice decisions for trade marks and designs are compiled in a repository that includes best practices from the four IP offices of the Andean Community (CAN) region, in relation to trade mark and design examination and the decisions of the Andean Tribunal of Justice when interpreting the operational application of Decision 486.

The European project, Intellectual Property Key Latin America (IP Key LA), in conjunction with INDECOPI (Instituto Nacional de Defensa de la Competencia y de la Protección de la Propiedad Intelectual), recently launched a study on the economic contribution of industrial property-intensive industries in Peru.

Following the first series of high-level meetings with non-EU stakeholders, which took place in the first half of this year, the Office, over the period from 6 to 16 July, is meeting with the heads of non-EU IP offices.