By: Dougliris Torres

On May 3, the first roundtable of the year took place in the context of the commemoration of World Intellectual Property Day, an event sponsored by the Venezuelan Association of Industrial Property Agents (COVAPI) that counted on a group of respectable speakers.

To analyze “The economic impact of brands in Latin America,” according to a presentation by Luis Alejandro Henríquez, current secretary of the Inter-American Association of Intellectual Property, ASIPI, countries like Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama and Peru were considered, and the economic activities that make intensive use of brands were evaluated working hand in hand with the local trademark offices of each of the pre-named countries, which provided the necessary data to obtain the average of registered trademarks and the products or services that they protect. This allowed them to estimate the difference between sectors that make intensive use of brands of those that do not, noting that detergents, pharmaceutical products, garments and clothing items, professional services, educational services and scientific and technological services, are the leading sectors in the use of their brands.

In his presentation, the speaker also highlighted the importance of the contribution of these sectors to those countries’ local economy, which not only favors foreign trade, but also a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) reflects the activities related to intellectual property, which undoubtedly contributes to the creation of jobs and better remunerations.

He also stressed the importance that Latin American governments design public policies to educate and promote the importance of the orange economy from the intensive use of brands, which could generate profits even greater than the traditional economy.

In his presentation, Castor González questioned the present and future of intellectual property in Venezuela, where are we? Where we go? And commented that since Venezuela’s withdrawal from the Cartagena Agreement (CAN) in 2006, with the application of the Intellectual Property Law and the reform of the Fiscal Stamp Act in 2014, we began to experience many legal and intellectual challenges.

However, in terms of future challenges, the world does not stop innovating and Venezuela does not escape from it, since it has immense potential in trademark applications. In this connection, the speaker discussed what in his view the secrets of innovation are: 1) Culture of innovation, 2) Education for Innovation, 3) Simplification, 4) Encouragement to invention, and 5) Globalization.

All the aforementioned subjects allowed the speaker Matías Perez Irazábal, representative of COVAPI, to close the event with some considerations on the impact of brands in Latin America and the necessary policies for the reconstruction of intellectual property in the country, noting the importance of educating society to understand the value of intangible assets in the economy of a nation and the economic benefits that this entails, which undoubtedly becomes part of our project as members of Antequera Parilli & Rodriguez, where through our work, we build our contribution in this area of ​​knowledge adding value to our country.