Maximiliano Santa Cruz

Maximiliano Santa Cruz (1970) is Counselor at the Mission of Chile to the World Trade Organization and has been recently named director of the Chilean National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI), the Chilean IP Office. He will start his new job in October.

He obtained his law degree from the Universidad de Chile and a LL.M. from the University of San Francisco, California, U.S. in International Transactions and Comparative Law with a concentration on Intellectual Property and Information Technologies. Since January 2005 he has been working in the Permanent Mission of Chile to the WTO, in charge, among other, of intellectual property issues and trade facilitation. During his employment in Geneva he has acted as Second Vice-chair of the WIPO Coordination Committee (9.2005/9.2006); First Vice-chair of the WIPO Coordination Committee (9.2006/9.2007); Vice-chair of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Trademarks, Industrial Designs and Geographical Indications (SCT) (5.2006/7.2007); Chair of the WIPO Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (6.2008/present).

Since 1999 to 2004 he worked at the Economic Directorate (Direcon) of the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was in charge of intellectual property issues in Direcon, first working in the Trade Policy/WTO Department and then as the Head of the intellectual Property Unit. He was head negotiator in intellectual property in the free trade agreements between Chile and the European Union, the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), Korea and the agreement between Chile, New Zealand , Brunei and Singapore (known as P4). He was also negotiator in the agreement with the United States and in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Council for Trade related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the World Trade Organization (WIPO).