Peru leading effort to promote women influence in IP

By Espinosa Bellido Abogados

The executive president of Indecopi, Julián Palacín Gutiérrez, highlighted the actions being carried out by the Latin American Network on Intellectual Property and Gender, under the pro tempore presidency of Peru, to promote the use of intellectual property among women, reduce the gender gap in the field and strengthen economic development in the region.

On June 2021, the Industrial Property Authorities of Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile and Peru signed the Memorandum of Understanding that gave place to the Latin American Network on Intellectual Property and Gender. Other countries have later joined the network.

The goal of the organization is to promote gender equity and reduce the inequality gap, as well as to facilitate the exchange of best practices among countries, share information and experiences on the subject and strengthen the gender agenda in IP. The pro tempore presidency is in charge of the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Intellectual Property (Indecopi) of Peru, headed by Palacín Gutiérrez.

In a recent panel focused on gender information management and establishment of indicators that measure the participation of women in different aspects of intellectual property, Palacín Gutiérrez highlighted that, under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), Peru is ranked fifth worldwide in patent applications filed by women.

The PCT allows for the filing of international patent applications and the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) which can accelerate a patent application. In Peru patents for inventions can be protected for up to 20 years, a term that is not renewable and is counted from the date the application was filed.