During the 11th BRICS Heads of Intellectual Property Offices (HIPO) meeting held in Cape Town – South Africa on April 14-16, the pro tempore presidency of the IP BRICS was transferred to the BRPTO, which will be responsible for the coordination of the block’s activities for a year.  

Among heads of institutions, Cláudio Vilar Furtado (BRPTO), Grigory Ivliev (Rospatent-Russia), O.P. Gupta (CGPDTM-India), Shen Changyu (CNIPA-China) and Rory Voller (CIPC-South Africa) attended the meeting. The delegation of the BRPTO was also composed of Alexandre Dantas (Directorate of Patents) and Erica de Holanda Leite (International Relations Coordination).  

Themes that were discussed during the meeting: IP promotion for small and medium companies; exchange of IP databases; IP dissemination; and consensus-building in international forums.  

The BRPTO presented its new projects in the area of patents – the technical examination of patents with Markush formulas, and the management of the workload using data about the volume of patent applications – that should be developed in 2019.  

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