The Twenty-First Century Intellectual Property Office

Abstract

When people commonly think of patent and trademark offices of different countries, they think of huge amounts of paperwork, unresolved issues, backlogs and stagnated knowledge. Offices have been perceived for years as bureaucratic and passive entities, having immense backlogs. Only a few were able to appreciate their actual potential and significance. The latent and key role of the knowledge held by intellectual property offices across the world has been underestimated for years. However, with the passage of time and the paramount significance gained by technology, digitalization, trade and innovation, these offices have begun to become protagonists—and not antagonists—in the advances and economic progress of a country. The emergence of digital technologies and the internet is an opportunity not only to solve the traditional problems of intellectual property offices but also to fulfill, once and for all, one of the original objectives of the IP system, which is, not only to promote innovation, but also technology transfer and diffusion of knowledge. Our reflection focuses on the leading role that said offices have or should acquire in the twenty-first century, which is expected to continue in the upcoming years, with special emphasis on the closest case to us: Chile’s National Institute of Industrial Property.

A country without a patent office and good patent laws is just a crab, and can’t travel any way but sideways and backways

Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.