At the beginning of December, the ‘Workshop for Latin American Customs Officials on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights’ was held in an online and face-to-face format in Mexico and Panama. It was undertaken in collaboration with the National Customs Agency of Mexico and the National Customs Authority of Panama.

The main objective was to inform the region’s customs officials of best practices in the detection of IPR infringements at borders as well as through so-called small consignments.

With the main objective of presenting success stories and best practices, IP Key Latin America (LA) invited authorities and institutions from all Latin American countries to the forum ‘Enforcement of IP rights in the digital world’. This online event took place on 29 November and featured experts in IP rights.

This activity, comprising a feasibility study on the possible creation of a CAN trade mark registration system with the aim of evaluating the practicality of developing a CAN regional registration system for trade marks and its benefits for the Andean community, and for the companies operating in the region.

The purpose of this activity, building on the work accomplished under IP Key LA (creation of a compendium of decisions on designs in July 2021), is to compare, analyse and assess the practice regarding examination and registration, and the level of harmonisation among the four CAN IPOs. 

This workshop will be an opportunity to share experiences on aligning with CPs and to introduce and create a discussion platform with LA countries on the new areas of practice and IP system in which EU IPOs have further converged.

On 28-29 June, IP Key Latin America held a virtual workshop on the examination procedure for non-traditional trade marks, bringing together over 150 officials and trade mark examiners from all 16 Latin American IP Offices.

The seminar aimed to provide training on non-traditional trade marks to Latin American examiners, as well as promoting best practices in order to increase transparency, legal certainty and predictability for the benefit of examiners and users alike.

This activity aims to strengthen the Latin American IPO’s capacity to deal with new technologies (i.e. artificial intelligence) and to increase examiners’ efficiency in this area, as well as to improve their decision predictability for end-users.

On 15 November 2022, experts from Latin America (LA) and the European Union participated as speakers in a virtual workshop on plant varieties organised by IP Key LA.

The event addressed issues related to the Convention of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). This convention is the basis on which the European Union’s member states rely to promote plant breeding through the granting of an intellectual property right: the plant breeder’s right.

The activity aims to raise operator, stakeholder and authority awareness and knowledge of how to develop and market GIs. Specific market-related issues will be studied, including coexistence with trade marks, focusing on cases related to the phasing out of the use of protected names.

This activity will contribute to facilitating the adoption of transitional measures and engagement in rebranding strategies in relation to distinctive signs in conflict with EU GIs. It will favour the expansion of GIs among local producers and raise awareness.