Intellectual Property in Covid-19 times: protecting creations is important

Intellectual property in Covid-19 times has been a busy area of law. As soon as the pandemic has gained worldwide proportions, in addition to the evident public health problems, other types of disorders and a reorganization of people’s way of life, companies and science spare no effort to create solutions in record time. Even with the urgency of the situation, it is important that these inventions are protected and the rights of their creators are protected by intellectual property.
The subject is so important that, in Brazil, the Act 1649/20 proposes an amendment to the National Quarantine Law to give absolute priority through simplified procedures for the analysis of rights protection requests on industrial property of products and technologies aimed at combating the Covid-19 pandemic.
Brazilian creations during the pandemic
While the project is underway, Brazilian companies, universities, startups and research centers are committed to developing efficient, inexpensive and scalable technologies to face the new coronavirus. The National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) assembled on its website, in an area whose title is Covid-19 Observatory, national initiatives in the development of medicines, equipment, diagnostic tests, telemedicine and artificial intelligence, among other creations.
There are compiled news of advances to combat the pandemic, such as the emergency lung ventilator created by engineers from the University of São Paulo and the partnership between the Butantan Institute and the Chinese company Sinovac for the production of a vaccine.
The Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) also gathered on its page innovations and technologies of Brazilian companies to face Covid-19 as the Social Isolation Index created by a startup that uses technology to understand location behavior.
Intellectual property in Covid-19 times is a matter to be closely watched. Adverse and challenging situations tend to drive great creations. Now, in the 21st century, with so many technological resources and information circulation available, things must happen very quickly.