International cooperation: technical workshop on tools and practices for Mercosur IP offices and INAPI Chile

On 21 and 22 November, a technical workshop on tools and practices developed under the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN) was held in Montevideo, Uruguay.

The technical workshop was organised under the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) bilateral technical cooperation activities following the launch of the EU funded AL-INVEST Verde PI project and the promotion of the social and economic importance of IPRs for national authorities event in Montevideo on 21 November. The workshop provided a platform to cooperate with non-EU IP offices in the Mercosur region to share and promote the benefits of the EUIPN’s tools and practices and to exchange views and define future cooperation.

A total of five non-EU IP offices, including the four industrial property offices from Mercosur Member States (INPI Brazil, INPI Argentina, DINAPI Paraguay, DNPI Uruguay) and INAPI Chile, participated in the technical workshop.

Experts from these non-EU IP offices exchanged information, knowledge and experiences with EUIPO experts. The participants identified tools and practices of interest to the offices and defined future joint actions for implementation. In addition, the EUIPO’s initiatives for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and an overview of the EUIPO’s Observatory activities were presented and discussed during the workshop.