BRAZIL Law and Practice Contributed by: Ricardo Barretto Ferreira da Silva and Camila Sabino Del Sasso, Azevedo Sette Advogados
The most common abusive practices may include: • imposing predatory or discriminatory prices; • unjustifiably denying competitors’ access to essential inputs; • hindering the entry or development of rivals in the market; and • demanding exclusivity clauses without objec - tive justification. According to Brazilian law, CADE may inves - tigate and penalise abusive conduct even if it takes place outside the national territory, as long as it produces effects in the Brazilian market. With regard to cases of economic dependency, these may be analysed from the perspective of the Civil Code and CADE case law. Economic dependency may be defined as abuse in cases where there is exploitation of an asymmetrical relationship between companies, the practice of excessively onerous prices or contractual condi - tions, and the imposition of clauses that unfairly restrict the commercial freedom of the depend - ent partner. Under Brazil’s Industrial Property Law (Law No 9,279/1996), a patent is a temporary title of ownership over an invention or utility model, granted by the State to inventors or authors or other individuals or legal entities holding rights over the creation. The inventor or patent holder has the right to prevent third parties, without their consent, from producing, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the product that is the object of their patent and/or the process or product obtained directly by a process patented 7. Intellectual Property 7.1 Patents
by them. In return, the inventor undertakes to disclose in detail all the technical content of the matter protected by the patent. There are three types of patents and each has its own term of validity, as follows. • Invention Patent (IP) – applies to products or processes that meet the requirements of inventive step, novelty, and industrial applica - tion. This patent is valid for 20 years from the date of filing. • Utility Model Patent ( Modelo de Utilidade , or MU) – applies to an object of practical use (or part thereof) susceptible to industrial applica - tion, which presents a new form or arrange - ment, involving an inventive act that results in a functional improvement in its use or manu - facture. This patent is valid for 15 years from the date of filing. • Invention Addition Certificate (C) – concerns improvement or development introduced into the subject matter of the invention, even if devoid of inventive step, but still within the same inventive concept. The certificate will be ancillary to the patent and will have the same end date as the patent. Patents may be assigned either in whole or in part and they may also be licensed to third par - ties for use. Such licensing must be formalised through a contract entered into by the involved parties. With regard to the patent application, the pro - cedure is exclusively electronic. The application must be filed via the “e-Patents” online platform. Documentation protocols delivered on paper at the National Institute of Industrial Property ( Insti- tuto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial , or INPI) reception or sent by post were suspended by INPI Resolution No 251 of 2 October 2019.
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