BRAZIL Law and Practice Contributed by: Ricardo Barretto Ferreira da Silva and Camila Sabino Del Sasso, Azevedo Sette Advogados
that can be applied to a product, providing a new and original visual result in its external configura - tion, and that can serve as a type of industrial manufacture. In Brazil, industry design is protected by regis - tration and not by patent, as is the case in other countries. The industrial design registration is intended to protect the appearance of the prod - uct and does not apply to the protection of the technical, functional or technological aspects of a product, nor to the protection of trade marks and logos. Therefore, registration protects the appearance that differentiates the product from others. The application for registration must be made via the INPI’s website, by filling in the application form, paying the filing fee (GRU), and submitting the necessary documents and design, which must comply with the standards established by the regulation. Once granted, the industrial design registration is valid in national territory and gives the holder the right, during the term of validity, to exclude third parties from manufac - turing, marketing, importing, using or selling the protected subject matter without prior authori - sation. The term of validity is ten years from the date of filing, extendable for three further suc - cessive periods of five years. 7.4 Copyright In Brazil, copyright is governed by the Law No 9,610/1998 (the “Copyright Act”), which estab - lishes the rights of authors over their literary, artistic and scientific works. However, it is impor - tant to note that ideas, mere discoveries, and methods are excluded from copyright protec - tion. To be eligible for copyright protection, a work must be original, enabling the owner to obtain
temporary exclusivity over its economic use, in addition to the author’s moral rights. The eco - nomic rights generally last for 70 years, count - ed from January 1st of the year following the author’s death. The author is defined as the individual who cre - ates the work and may differ from the copyright holder when rights are transferred for commer - cial use. Only economic (proprietary) rights may be transferred; moral rights – such as the right to be recognised as the author, the right to keep the work unpublished, the right to preserve its integrity, and the right to prevent alterations that harm the author’s honour or reputation – are inal - ienable and non-transferable. The Copyright Act also extends special protec - tion to performers, phonogram producers, and broadcasting organisations. Foreign nationals and residents of countries that offer reciproc - ity to Brazilian citizens are entitled to the same copyright protections in Brazil. Unlike industrial property rights, copyright pro - tection arises automatically upon the creation and expression of the work, without the need for registration. Nevertheless, registration is recom - mended as a means of establishing authorship and providing legal evidence in case of future disputes. Copyright infringement can lead to civil and criminal penalties. The courts and specialised agencies can act to seize pirated materials or stop unauthorised uses. 7.5 Others Brazilian legal framework also provides protec - tion for software (Law No 9,609/1998), which establishes IP rights over computer programs, regulating their marketing and use. Protection
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