The course was organized by the
OAS Department of Trade, Tourism and Competitiveness (DTTC)
together with the Mexican Industrial Property Institute,
the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) and
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Objective:

        To train government officials responsible for trade-related intellectual property issues through a very thorough and highly technical examination of the different provisions, institutional practices, administrative procedures and experiences in the areas of patents, test data and relevant regulatory systems (pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals), best practices and successful use of IPR systems, from other countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Description of Activity:

It covered the main intellectual property issues in the areas of patents, test data and the relationship between the patent system and other regulatory areas (pharmaceuticals and agro-chemicals). Presentations and discussions included the main provisions in trade agreements at the multilateral and sub-regional level as well as the national experiences on the administration and institutional practices of Mexico, Chile, United States, Brazil, Colombia and DR-CAFTA countries. The course also featured case studies and strategies to benefit from IPR rules and systems. A CD with all the presentations was distributed before the end of the workshop. Participants also benefited from a comprehensive working visit of the patent section at IMPI. The visit included a step-by-step description of the procedures, institutional organization and substantive matters of a patent application from its reception, examination and issuance of the title. 

Results:

 ·         The seminar trained sixty four (64) government officials responsible for handling trade-related intellectual property rights issues from sixteen (16) Latin American countries.

 ·         From the total of 64 participants of 17 countries, 28 were international country officials (including four from the US Embassy in Mexico and the Head of Economic Affairs of the Brazilian Embassy in Mexico). The group was a combination of officials working on trade negotiations, patent and trademark offices, regulators, staff in congress and diplomats dealing with IPR issues. Countries represented were: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United States, Uruguay. There were 19 speakers: (7 from Mexico), and 16 Mexican officials attended as participants (from IMPI, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Environment, National Institute of Ecology, National Institute of Indigenous Affairs and Mexican Institute of Genomic Medicine).

 ·         Man/ Woman international government officials flown from other countries (24): 9/15
 ·         Man/ Woman total number of participants, including speakers (64): 34/30