PCT Seminar for Portuguese-Speaking African Countries

May 16, 2018

WIPO and the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) organized a seminar on the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in the WIPO Brazil Office (WBO) from May 2 to 4, 2018.

The main purpose of this seminar was to train trainers from African countries with Portuguese as an official language, so they can develop outreach activities in their home countries.

In addition to participants from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissao, Mozambique and São Tome and Principe, four patent examiners from the National Institute of Industrial Property attended as part of the general effort from INPI to enhance national capacity in this area.

Strengthening INPI

At the opening ceremony, the Regional Director of the WIPO Brazil Office, José Graça Aranha, and the Director of Patents of INPI, Júlio Cesar Moreira, encouraged participants to promote the Brazilian INPI as an International Search and Preliminary Examination authority (ISA/IPEA) of the PCT in their countries.

Participants were also trained on the international patent filing system, INPI procedures as an ISA/IPEA, the role of WIPO, and received a practical demonstration on the e-PCT.