Delayed Justice…
The Administrative Litigation Court ruled in our favor in a patent proceeding, correcting a mistake made by the local IP Office; we achieved protection, a victory, no doubt, but a bittersweet one.
This patent application was filed on January 23, 2006, under a political regime acting against patentability.
In the first instance, and within the absurdly long period it takes for the local IP Office to resolve a patent, patent protection was denied on February 9, 2012, to which we filed an administrative appeal with a new set of claims.
Contrary to the law and ignoring jurisprudential provisions, the IP Office considered that a new claim set could not be submitted in this instance and again denied protection using the same previous arguments, taking almost seven additional years.
We appealed judicially, trusting that the existing illegalities would be sufficient to correct the error and grant protection. This happened because we were fortunate enough to have competent Judges in the Court.
Unfortunately, the favorable ruling was issued when only three days of protection remained for the invention sought to be patented.
The question then arises: Is the justice obtained fair? Obviously not.
The need to press for the application of the accelerated patent system is now becoming imperative. Without patents, there is no development or investment. Once and for all, it is necessary to adopt the solutions already in the Law or compensate with additional protection time patents that, as in this case, have obtained protection three days before their expiration due to the absolute irresponsibility of the State. State that has also charged annuities for a non-existent right and the highest fees in Latin America for examination.
I consider this ruling a professional achievement. Reversing patent decisions in courts is not easy, but it is a failure of our country’s patent system. If we do not take these types of facts seriously and seek a correction that solves these problems at the root, we will continue, at best, obtaining unfair justice.
Eduardo Ríos
Partner at CorralRosales
eduardo@corralrosales.com
