|
Legal Environment |
|
IT Impacts On the Business |
|
Legal Environment |
|
IT Strengths and weaknesses |
|
Transborder Data Flow |
|
Government Policies |
|
About the Authors |
|
Sources and Links |
|
Overview Venezuela is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and therefore has agreed to three Intellectual Property treaties. Also, the Andean Pact, of which Venezuela is a party, has two intellectual property agreements. Venezuela's 1993 copyright law substantially improved protection of copyright products and enhanced penalties for copyright infringement. A National Copyright Office was established in October 1995 and is responsible for controlling, overseeing, and ensuring compliance with the rights of authors and other copyright holders. In July 1996, the government formed a special anti-piracy unit (COMANPI) to act as an enforcement arm of the copyright office. Piracy rates have decreased by 12% in the past five years, and are consistent with those for the region of Latin America, but are relatively high in comparison to the piracy rates in the United States. Furthermore, the Venezuelan court system and practices has proven to be an unreliable means to protecting intellectual property rights. Intellectual Property Agreements Venezuela has been a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) since 1984, and has ratified the following agreements within the framework of this Organization:
Patents and Trademarks Two Andean Pact decisions on the protection of patents and trademarks and of plant varieties have been in effect in Venezuela since January 1, 1994, and October 29, 1993, respectively. The decisions are comprehensive and offer a significant improvement over previous standards of intellectual property protection provided by the Andean Pact countries. For example, they provide a 20-year term of protection for patents and reversal of the burden of proof in cases of alleged patent infringement. The provisions of the decisions covering protection of trade secrets and new plant varieties are generally consistent with world class standards for protecting intellectual rights. However, these decisions remain deficient with respect to patents and trademarks. The deficiencies include overly broad compulsory licensing provisions, working requirements, restrictions on biotechnology inventions, denial of pharmaceutical patent protection for patented products listed on the World Health Organization's Model List of Essential Drugs, lack of transitional ("pipeline") protection, and lack of protection against parallel imports (2). December 2000 Impacts of National Information Technology |