A new guide to fostering innovation

In December 2016, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI) published a document named “Chile: Industrial Property National Strategy”.

Even though Chile has a robust and modern IP system, there is still a perception that it is under-used. The enactment of this strategy does not mean that Chile has not made good progress in the past decades through several achievements, such as enacting in 1991 Industrial Property Law No. 19.039, which will be modified once a bill, currently in Congress, passes into law.

Other successes include the accession of Chile into the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT); the creation of INAPI; and the appointment of INAPI as an international searching authority and international preliminary examining authority under the PCT.

Nevertheless, this document, with 60 concrete proposals, seeks to have an explicit and proactive guideline that allows a permanent updating of each circumstance and/or need relating to national creators.

Economic development

According to the document, there is a range of actions and measures designed to foster and use IP as an effective tool for social and economic development, promoting innovation and the spread of knowledge, so the market is organised and consumers are well informed.

The document also assesses the Chilean situation towards the protection of IP and states the objectives and challenges that Chile needs to reach in order to foster the insertion, promotion and implementation of IP so it can help the country to increase the level of innovation and investment in R&D. It also includes data about the growth in patent and trademark applications during the last decades.