Minister Omar Paganini opened the conference in which the AL-INVEST Green Intellectual Property Rights project was officially launched. This European Union program promotes sustainable growth and job creation in Latin America, supporting a low carbon economy. It seeks to achieve greater effectiveness of intellectual property rights in the region, particularly in Mercosur, to promote cooperation opportunities and stimulate sustainable innovation. It will be based in Montevideo until the end of 2024. MIEM, through DNPI, is a counterpart to this initiative.
The Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay, Omar Paganini, opened on November 21 the official inauguration conference of the AL-INVEST Green Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Action, aimed at making visible the socioeconomic importance of intellectual property and the challenges of sustainable growth in Montevideo. The Minister was accompanied at the inauguration by the Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) in Uruguay, Paolo Berizzi, and the representative of International Cooperation of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), Ignacio de Medrano. The conference officially presented the AL-INVEST Verde DPI project in Uruguay, where it will be based until the end of 2024. The conference, held at the Hyatt Centric Montevideo Hotel and in virtual mode, featured several presentations by leading European and international speakers. level in the field of intellectual property and innovation.
About AL-INVEST Green
AL-INVEST Verde is an EU program whose main objective is to promote sustainable growth and job creation in Latin America, supporting the transition towards a low carbon, resource efficient and more circular economy. Through Component 3, AL-INVEST Verde DPI, led by EUIPO, the program seeks to achieve greater use and effectiveness of IPRs in Latin America, particularly in Mercosur countries, to promote opportunities for cooperation in research and stimulate competitiveness and sustainable innovation. More information: www.alinvest-verde.eu.
AL-INVEST Verde DPI proposes to use intellectual property effectively to contribute to the improvement of a favorable framework in Latin America, particularly in the Mercosur countries, to stimulate innovation, facilitate sustainable growth and job creation, and ensure effective international participation of its economic actors.
The Uruguayan Government, through the National Directorate of Industrial Property (DNPI) of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM), is one of the counterparts associated with the project, as are the intellectual property offices of the rest of Mercosur, Chile, and other countries in the region. The MIEM, through the DNPI, together with the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation (AUCI), has also had a significant impact on the installation of AL-INVEST Verde DPI in Montevideo.
IPR-intensive industries are deeply embedded in the Uruguayan economy. They generated almost 50% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Uruguay between 2014 and 2019, which is very similar to the contribution of IPR-intensive industries to GDP in the European Union during the same period, around 45%. . IPR-intensive industries also represented 35.9% of formal employment in Uruguay, since they directly employed an average of 352,999 people per year.[1]
AL-INVEST Verde DPI works in three areas:
– Work to achieve efficient and accessible IPR institutions, strengthening the capacity of national and regional intellectual property (IP) institutions, particularly those of the Mercosur countries, to improve IPR protection and enforcement systems.
– Contribute to an innovative, sustainable and competent productive sector in terms of IPR, improving the capacities of the productive sector, particularly small and medium-sized companies and the scientific-academic, technological and agricultural sectors, in terms of the management of the IPR (including GIs) to derive value from innovation.
– Build IPR networks and promote internationalization by strengthening inter-institutional and transnational networks of actors to facilitate the adoption of IP best practices to promote innovation and artistic creation and to align IP laws with international standards.
In this context, the AL-INVEST Verde DPI project was presented, including some of its proposed activities for the coming months. The types of activities that will be carried out refer to optimization of the IP process, capacity building, studies and data collection, technical and legal support and network development. This is done in close collaboration with Mercosur and Latin American national IP offices, regional organisations, IPR and innovation policy makers, industry, business associations and chambers of commerce, the academic community and IPR enforcement agencies. (judges, prosecutors or customs officers).
[1] Data from the study carried out by IP Key Latin America (2021) entitled “The economic contribution of intensive industries in intellectual property rights in Uruguay” and from the study carried out by the EUIPO European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights entitled ” Intensive sectors in intellectual property rights and economic results in Latin American countries” (2022). MIEM
