Anticounterfeiting Committee: Policy Dialogue Emphasizes Collaboration to Protect Intellectual Property Rights in El Salvador

The Latin America and Caribbean Subcommittee of the Anticounterfeiting Committee held a policy dialogue on December 18 in El Salvador on the “Promotion of Respect Towards the Protection of Intellectual Property.” Following in-depth discussion, attendees concurred that collaboration among various stakeholders is essential to protect intellectual property (IP) rights.

The dialogue was organized in cooperation with the National Registry Center (CNR) through the Intellectual Property Center, and was attended by more than 45 participants from both the public and private sectors.

The workshop was opened by Dr. Rogelio A. Canales, Executive Director of CNR; Martha Evelyn Menjívar, Director, Intellectual Property Registry, CNR; and Latin America and Caribbean Subcommittee Member Marcela Mancia (IDeas trademarks & patents, El Salvador).In the first panel of the day, Danilo Rodriguez Villamil (Espino Nieto & Asociados, El Salvador), who represented Asociación Interamericana de la Propiedad Industrial (ASIPI), introduced an analysis on enforcement and the current status of the national legal framework of El Salvador. Ms. Mancia then spoke about changes on the national level in regard to IP rights and the digital environment. Both speakers presented case studies on these topics and discussed how collaboration and communication with the public sector is necessary in order to have success.

In addition, Arturo Soto (Intellectual Property Registry, El Salvador), discussed IP and the Internet, and the balance that is needed when analyzing compliance with IP rights in the digital environment and data protection. This topic was especially important to the attendees considering the relationship between anticounterfeiting enforcement and data protection.

The dialogue also included presentations by registrars from the Intellectual Property Registry on their roles in matters of administrative procedures of IP rights. The presenters were Hazel Arevalo (trademarks), Katia Martinez (patents), Juan Carlos Aguilar Samayoa (registry entries), and Alex Morales (legal resources).

The workshop closed with a consensus among the attendees that there is a need to promote more IP awareness in university courses in order to highlight the importance of IP to society.

For more information on INTA’s anticounterfeiting activities, please contact INTA Anticounterfeiting Manager Maysa Razavi at [email protected] or Anticounterfeiting Senior Coordinator Tiffany Pho at [email protected].

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of items in the INTA Bulletin, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.