Peru signs three major international cooperation agreements

By Francisco Espinosa Bellido

In order to promote and increase the use of the intellectual property system, and trademark and patent protection, the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) of Peru signed three major international cooperation agreements with european offices.

These achievements came during the Fifty-Fifth Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), that were held from October 5 to 14, 2015, at the WIPO headquarters in Geneva.

The president of Indecopi, Hebert Tassano Velaochaga, first signed with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM) a Memorandum of Understanding that establishes a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) between both countries. The PPH speeds up the examination process for corresponding applications filed in participating intellectual property offices. Under PPH, participating patent offices have agreed that when an applicant receives a final ruling from a first patent office that at least one claim is allowed, the applicant may request fast track examination of corresponding claim(s) in a corresponding patent application that is pending in a second patent office.

A second Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OAMI) of the European Union, to join efforts and achieve greater efficiency in the protection of trademark rights and other IP rights. Finally, a cooperation agreement was signed with the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) of France, in order to create mechanisms of collaboration and support for Peruvian intellectual property.