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Colombian Patent Office celebrates 15 years of Decision 486

The Colombian PTO celebrates the “Symposium on the System of Intellectual Property in the Andean Community” in Bogotá commemorating the 15th anniversary of Decision 486.

The head of the Colombian PTO has indicated at the opening of the symposium that Colombia has become the third most agile office in the world, after China and South Korea, granting 6 of 10 patent applications filed in Colombia in an average of 23 months.

The symposium discusses several Intellectual Property aspects. Specifically in patents, the practice’s changes for reviewing substantive and form aspects for applications have been discussed. In this regard, proposals as combining official action (legal requirements) and the substantive examination (patentability requirements) to allow to the applicants to meet formal requirements, such as access contracts, assignments in later time focusing on the relevant aspects of patentability.

From the symposium, additionally, the proposal to continue with the harmonization of PTOs of the Andean Community (INDECOPI-PERU, BOLIVIA SENAPI- IEPI-ECUADOR-COLOMBIA AND SIC) has raised in order to strengthen IP as a basis system for innovation and production of knowledge to improve the quality of citizens’ life. It has also been proposed reviewing the Andean Patent Manual for updating and reactivating the same as common basic framework in patents for the member countries. It has also considered the issue of the Community patent.

The symposium also has been a further communication bridge between the Intellectual Property agents and the Patent Office. Applicants’ concerns and commentaries have been raised in relation to the perception of the new practices of the Colombian Patent Office.

For more information: http://www.sic.gov.co/drupal/noticias/