Argentina signs a memorandum of understanding with the EU

By Estudio Chaloupka

On 5 February in Buenos Aires, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) and the European Patent Office (EPO) signed a memorandum of understanding on the introduction of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC).

"The signature of this MoU responds to the strategic objective to simplify all the procedures of the public administration," said Dámaso Pardo, President of INPI, in an EPO press release. "The use of the CPC will lead to a more efficient search process and will facilitate the substantive examination done by INPI examiners. This will bring a significant benefit to the public, as it will improve the timeline of the patent granting process", he added.

Pardo signed the MoU with EPO President Benoît Battistelli, who explained that "the ultimate goal" of the co-operation is to support innovation and economic growth between the two regions. "For European companies, increased harmonisation of patent procedures means that they will be able to expect similar conditions for protecting their inventions in Europe and Argentina", he stated.

The CPC is the new global standard for refined patent classification. Other Latin American countries which have already adopted it are Brazil, Chile and Mexico. INPI will start classifying its publications in the CPC by January 2019.