Intellectual Property and Electronic Signature. Digitization for a greener world

By Bufete Mejía & Asociados

Bufete Mejía & Asociados, Honduras top firm in intellectual property, celebrated the World Intellectual Property Day with a webinar on electronic signature as a pathway and modern-day imperative for a green future.

Every April 26 the World IP Day globally encourages innovation and creativity by promoting the role of intellectual property through economy, culture and society. In 2020 the focus was a call for the collective wisdom, ingenuity and creativity to come up with new, more effective ways to shape a low-carbon future. Therefore, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) campaign centered around innovation – and the IP rights that support it – at the heart of such efforts.

The campaign also celebrated the many inspiring inventors and creators around the world who are betting on a green future – the women, men and young people who are working on cleaner alternatives to legacy fossil-fuel-based technologies and better and more sustainable food and natural resource management systems, and who are using the IP system to support their work and its uptake and use in society.

With that in mind, Bufete Mejía & Asociados brought together the Honduran IP industry to hear about the works that are currently being done on the matter, and to prepare themselves for the difficulties and opportunities that the COVID-19 has put on the table. 

“We all share in this challenge and each have a role in building a green future. We can create a green future as problem solvers and use digital tools on our daily lives,” said Blanca Mejía, the webinar moderator. “Intellectual property is a system of rights that offers tools and incentives for development, creativity and healthy business competition. Its complexity and multi-faceted endeavors sometimes causes discontent and confusion on its users, and that is why the World Intellectual Property Day is important, as it can offer insight and answer questions,” she added.

The speakers of the webinar were:

-Camilo Bendeck, Director of the Honduran Intellectual Property Office.
-Juan Pittaluga, lawyer, seminarist and creator of Latin American IP media leader Marcasur.
-Carlos Nunes, a business administrator and participant in electronic signature projects in South America for German company H&D, one of the world's largest IT service providers for the automobile industry.
-Oscar Castro, Commercial Vice President in Central America and Mexico for Grupo Visión, an Honduran company which provides corporate solutions for government and private institutions.
-Josué Reyes, Entrepreneurship Coordinator at the Central American Technological University.
-Víctor Cuevas, Technical Research Advisor for the Resource Center for Learning and Research of the Central American Technological University.
-Ricardo Mejía, Director of the Intellectual Property Department at Bufete Mejía & Asociados.

Ricardo Mejía talked about the need of developing and managing intellectual property assets during a pandemic: patents and utility models, cultural works, innovative designs, trademarks, designations of origin and trade secrets.

“Assets must be identified and protected effectively both legally and technically. More effective protection and more availability means a greater value,” Mejía stated. “At this type of times in history, marketing becomes the key to success or survival. Now more than ever people, companies and businesses must invest in marketing and promotion because the recognition of a product or service by a consumer with limited physical mobility can only be achieved through protected and well-managed trademarks. Designs, know how, inventions and models properly protected and managed can be the object of license, franchises or authorized use contracts, Mong other, which gives security and economic recognition,” he explained. 

Mejía also highlighted the need of alternative methods for reaching those physically limited consumers, which will necessary require to comply with more sanitary records and authorizations. “Innovating and reinventing ourselves are the key to the continuity of our businesses. Our intellectual property assets become today more than ever the intangible that defines us as a company”.

You can watch here the full webinar in Spanish.

On behalf of Bufete Mejía & Asociados we want to once again thank our guests and participants. We will reach you about future activities to keep us updated on the challenges of IP.