We are just days away from Brazilians heading to the polls to pick their next leader, and the result could have a significant impact on the brand protection ecosystem in Brazil. WTR talks with experts in the region about what the implications could be should incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro or his rival, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, prevail.
The general elections in Brazil are scheduled to be held this upcoming Sunday (2 October 2022), which will see the country elect a president, vice president, and National Congress. The two major candidates for president are right-wing populistBolsonaro, who was elected president in 2018, and the left-wing Lula, who governed Brazil from 2003 to 2010 but became involved in a corruption scandal that led to him being jailed for over a year until the decision was overturned by the BrazilianSupreme Court. At present, the favorite to win is Lula, with recent polls showing him holding 52% of valid votes in the first round, with Bolsonaro at 34%. However, Bolsonaro has been “laying the groundwork to contest the results”, as Reuters reports, “echoing Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election”.
Ultimately, as recent elections around the world have shown, polls are not always accurate and the vote count could go either way. And for trademark practitioners, especially those with brands operating in Brazil, the results could matter.
However, no matter who prevails, matters at the BPTO will not be at the top of either administration’s to-do list, claims Andre Oliveira, partner at Daniel Law. “It is hard to believe that the BPTO, or IP more generally, will be top priorities,” he explains. “The BPTO has greatly evolved over the last years, especially in connection with the reduction of the backlog both for patents and trademarks and adoption of patent prosecution fast track options. This trend started during the Temer administration and continued during the Bolsonaro administration.”
Indeed, recent evidence suggests that the BPTO has been making notable strides forward in recent years. In WTR’s annual IP Office Innovation Ranking, which ranks IPOs by their use of modern tools and systems, the agency has made huge progress. In 2018, it ranked 41st place in our list. In our latest research, published earlier this year, the BPTO had risen to sixth place alongside the IP institutions of Australia and Chile. Furthermore, after years of stalling and debate, the BPTO finally implemented the Madrid Protocol in 2019, which the office has described as “successful” (although local counsel have given a more mixed response). It has also stepped up its diversity efforts and curtailed its huge trademark application backlog.
Article published in the World Trademark Review. Click HERE to read in full.