The Inter-American Association of Intellectual Property (ASIPI) participated in the Second Forum on the Promotion of Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement in Latin America, held in Santiago de Chile, from May 2nd to 4th. This event brought together representatives of several Industrial Property Offices (ONAPIs) in Latin America and the Caribbean, and was organized by the International Trademark Association (INTA) and the National Institute of Industrial Property of Chile (INAPI), with the sponsorship and coordination of ASIPI and the Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

The opening remarks of the event were delivered by Mr. Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Director General of INAPI, who commented on the importance of this kind of academic meetings to improve the application of Intellectual Property in the commerce of the countries of the region.

The Forum featured an important academic agenda of two full days, where the discussions of the first edition in 2016 were resumed, and new debates were discussed. Representatives of the Prosecution Department, the Police Force and the Customs Authorities of Chile participated in the event, who presented the challenges of piracy and counterfeiting from their point of view, giving a more complete picture to the discussed situation.

In this event, ASIPI was represented by Rafael Covarrubias, Vice-President 2 and Matías Noetinger, Vocal 3, who had the task of moderating the panels entitled “Border Measures: Customs and IPOs working together to meet the challenges and opportunities in the XXI century” and “Education and training in IP rights enforcement”.

This is one of the activities in which ASIPI along with other institutions with similar interests, seek to improve the application of Intellectual Property in Latin America.