EPO congratulates INPI Brazil on its 50th anniversary
The National Institute of Industrial Property of Brazil (INPI) celebrated its 50th anniversary on 11 December 2020, with messages coming from national and international organisations from around the world.
In a short video statement, EPO President António Campinos congratulated INPI on its growth over the past 50 years, and its contribution to both local innovation and the global intellectual property system.
The EPO President highlighted the country's strength in innovation and the importance of intellectual property in supporting the creative solutions that will be needed combat the pandemic and ensure economic recovery.
He also paid tribute to the long and fruitful co-operation between INPI and the EPO, underlining that by working together, our two offices can help to make the patent system more effective.
INPI Brazil is an important partner for the EPO in Latin America, as the biggest IP office serving the region's largest economy. Since the launch of a first technical co-operation project in 2000, we have implemented a range of joint activities, including provision of patent examiner training and co-operation on tools such as the EPO's Epoque Net search tool and the Cooperative Patent Classification, a refined classification system used by 30 IP offices worldwide.
Last year the EPO and INPI enhanced their co-operation by signing a reinforced partnership agreement. Under this partnership, the offices will co-operate on strengthening local capacity in searching and examining patent applications through training and exchange of best practice, sharing tools, and exchanging patent data.