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Intellectual Property Reports reinforce and protect commercial markets in LATAM

The rights generated by the protection of a technology, product or process by patents, utility models or designs, provide exclusive exploitation for certain years to the assignee or owner of an invention.
However, many companies worldwide with commercial interests, started years ago watching for such invents that could provide good incomes level and become free of protection in countries with high potentiality of the requirement and manufacturing of such goods. It is well known that this is especially important nowadays in the Pharmaceuticals market.

Therefore, the trend is requiring information coming from patent databases or directly from the Patent Offices worldwide trying to find out with a high level of certainty, that the use of a technology, product or process of specific goods would not produce an infringement of rights in the countries of commercial interest.

Such situation could create a big legal and economical problem to small companies infringing big ones, or at the Chemical companies’ level, more specifically between the Pharmaceuticals. That is the reason why this theme has gained importance.

The LATAM countries have peculiarities for foreign companies (Asian between others) with commercial interest in our region: the inaccessibility to the documents due to their different language (Spanish), the availability or unavailability of information in the patent public databases and the time response of most of the Patent Offices, the unknown legislation in the country. Hence, the services coverage has been increased and diversified, providing advice in these items.

There may be two kinds of services related to this: (1) when there is already a detection of documents that may produce rights infringement and the investigation of their protection or potential filing in specific LATAM countries is required, and (2) a second and more definitive analysis, the specialized technical and legal opinion of the freedom of commercialization or “freedom to operate” (FTO) in a country, according to the National legislation in force.

Such opinion may assume high risks and mandatory compels to get a high level of certainty by the analysts because of the responsibility with the product launching expenses of the client; thus a very professional search of documents with potential infringing rights, known and unknown to the client, may be performed and of course, the professional opinion of a lawyer and of a skilled person in the technical field, both with a strong knowledge in the Intellectual Property National Law are required.

The Intellectual Property started to offer a new service perspective to help the launching of new products, preventing sues by infringement or giving strength to the development of the LATAM markets.

Carmen Sánchez-Puelles