Workshop Explores Intellectual Property Protection on E-Commerce Platforms

The following blog post is  by Daniela Machado (Lawyer at Salusse, Marangoni, Parente e Jabur Advogados) and Jéssica Yukari Hayashi Silva (Paralegal at Di Blasi, Parente & Advogados Associados). – GM

Intellectual property (IP) practitioners gathered on August 22, 2018 in São Paulo, Brazil to discuss IP enforcement in e-commerce and to raise awareness of the available tools on digital platforms to help rights holders.

The event, organized by INTA’s Young Practitioners Committee, brought together 30 young practitioners at the office of the São Paulo Association of Intellectual Property (Associação Paulista da Propriedade Intelectual or ASPI). Co-hosting the event were the São Paulo firms, David do Nascimento Advogados Associados; Lia e Barbosa Sociedade de Advogados; and Ricci Intellectual Property.

Carolina Calheiros (Rolim, Mietzel, Wholnick & Calheiros, Germany), a member of INTA’s Young Practitioners Committee, served as INTA’s representative at the event. She discussed the Association’s role in promoting IP discussions around the world and highlighted the benefits of INTA membership. She also stressed the importance of volunteering on INTA committees, emphasizing that this participation is a good way to gain visibility in the IP world.  

Cybelle Carneiro Fernandes (Mercado Livre, Argentina), provided insight about the anti-piracy program, Programa de Proteção à Propriedade Intelectual (Program for the Protection of intellectual Property), at Mercado Livre, an e-commerce company. She discussed the tools available to both combat piracy and help IP right holders defend their rights on the digital platform.  

In addition, she pointed out some difficulties the legal department faces in its anti-piracy efforts, noting that despite the simplicity of identifying suspicious products, there are a variety of challenges that can prevent prompt exclusion of infringing products from the platform.  

During the last segment of the event, the participants had the opportunity to gain practical skills. The young practitioners were assigned two cases to learn how strategy, argumentation, and defense of consumer rights are conducted on two different digital platforms: Mercado Livre and Instagram.  

After each group presented its strategy for their respective case, the representatives of the host firms opened the floor for discussion and provided the groups with feedback.