Signature of memorandums brings enhanced cooperation with Portuguese and Latvian offices
Director-General of the Internal Market Directorate Karla Pinter, Director of the Latvian Patent Office Agris Batalauskis, Director of the Intellectual Property Office Karin Žvokelj, President of the Portuguese Industrial Property Institute Ana Bandeira | Author Boštjan Lešnjak
The memorandums of understanding signed bring closer cooperation between the Slovenian Office and the national intellectual property offices in Latvia and Portugal. The Director of the Office Karin Žvokelj expressed her satisfaction with the launch of joint projects and the future regular exchange of good practices to strengthen our national intellectual property systems.
The signing of the memorandums is part of the Office's enhanced international cooperation, which actively seeks to transfer good practices and solutions that help and support the Slovenian economy.
During the visit of the Portuguese and Latvian Offices, we held individual bilateral meetings and one full-day trilateral meeting.
During the bilateral meeting with the Portuguese delegation, we agreed to cooperate in the preparation of an international conference on geographical indications and collective trademarks, which will be held on 25-26 November this year in Slovenia, and to cooperate in raising awareness among the general public on the occasion of this year's World Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Day in early June. Both delegations presented their experiences in raising awareness among businesses about the importance of intellectual property and discussed the patent granting process in both countries.
The trilateral meeting of the delegations was also addressed by the Director-General of the Internal Market Directorate Karla Pinter. Among the topics discussed were non-agri geographical indications, alternative dispute resolution in the field of intellectual property, the promotion of intellectual property in the school environment and the experience of EUIPO's Authenticity Network project.
In a bilateral meeting with the Latvian delegation, we presented our competences in the field of copyright law to our colleagues, and representatives of the Latvian Office gave us an overview of the system of the board of appeal, which operates within the Office. We also exchanged experiences on promotional activities and public awareness campaigns on intellectual property. We also visited the Public Agency for Scientific Research and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia - ARIS, where we discussed the system of commercialisation of innovations.