Collective Marks as a tool for development

By PPO Abogados

WIPO is carrying out a project that aims to empower entrepreneurs and SMEs in developing countries to use this intellectual property (IP) tool to add value to their products and services.

Four countries are participating in the project: Bolivia, Brazil, Tunisia, and the Philippines.

In each of these countries, the project team has selected a group of entrepreneurs as pilots. The project will help them develop and register a collective mark for their products. Participation in training and awareness-raising activities will help stakeholders better understand how to use this branding tool to market their products collectively.

In Bolivia, the project is in the process of selecting its pilot group of producers. The WIPO project team and its national partners will soon meet with relevant institutions and entities to discuss which productive sectors could benefit from the project.

In addition, they will identify potential groups of producers for the pilot program. Following the completion of those meetings, a thorough evaluation will be conducted to reach a final decision and begin the next phase of the project.

The project aims to convert the competent national office (SENAPI, in the case of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, or the relevant office in each beneficiary country) into an entity effecting linkages between collective mark registration and local development by supporting SMEs through the promotion of practices that generate a positive image of their goods, nationwide marketing, links to traditional practices and added value derived from the prioritization of sustainability.

The proposal is to establish a “collective mark incubator” involving SENAPI and the relevant private and public bodies (as appropriate in each beneficiary country), which will be tasked with assessing the technical, financial and market viability of the goods and services that they select, providing technical advisory services on trademark protection, and assisting in the registration of collective marks. It will thus contribute to the economic growth and development of the regions of Bolivia by making the most of the links between social capital, production enterprises and intellectual property.