Intellectual Property is the branch of Public Law that contains regulations to protect everything that concerns the creations produced by the human mind. It is the discipline that protects original literary, artistic or scientific creations expressed in a tangible or intangible medium or support.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DIVISION
This legal discipline is divided into two branches: Copyright and Intellectual Property. This concept is defined like this when it is fundamentally spoken of from an economic and patrimonial point of view. However, it is not taken into account that Intellectual Property is also considered a human right that constitutes a fundamental category of rights of the person as such, which must be distinguished from other rights that may also appear in the law but that do not constitute human rights.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AS A HUMAN RIGHT
Thus, we can say that Intellectual Property is a right inherent to the human person. It is for this reason that when a company hires someone, and in particular a researcher, it takes the precaution that said person assigns the rights that could derive from any invention or scientific or technical innovation that the former makes.
At this point, speaking in terms of a Human Right, reference must be made to the primacy of the common interest or over private interests, it is equally valid when considering the Industrial Property Law as a human right that arises from the first paragraph of the article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which textually states:
“EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO ENJOY THE ARTS AND TO PARTICIPATE IN SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS AND THE RESULTING BENEFITS”.
From there we can rescue the irrefutable fact that Intellectual Property has a capital social importance, because it protects the rights of creators in the artistic, scientific, literary, as well as commercial scientific fields. Its social importance is given taking into account that, from every point of view, it protects the consumer in terms of the services and products they consume, granting them the identification of their origin and quality.
SOCIAL AND BUSINESS IMPORTANCE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
We also verified the social importance of Intellectual Property, because by protecting the intangible assets of any company and becoming an incentive for authors, creators, entrepreneurs and businessmen to continue creating and innovating, which also translates into technological development that benefits the entire society as a whole.
The business importance of Intellectual Property is given because it is effectively the legal branch that provides protection to trademarks, patents, industrial designs, industrial models and related creations of any company. Thus, thanks to it, it is possible to identify when a product is original or a copy, providing precise information to the consumer about who is the creator or applicant of an intangible asset. On the other hand, the rules of Intellectual Property, give the creators of intangible assets, exclusivity in their use and exploitation, as a fair recognition of the work done.
Any creation that is made of a company can become an economic income and that is the moment in which Intellectual Property becomes a company asset. Thanks to these assets that become intellectual capital, companies can gain relevance and a competitive advantage over other market agents. Thus, the entrepreneur has the possibility of entering to compete even at a regional, national and regional level, undoubtedly providing a guarantee to the consumer of the products or services that contain it. Today where innovation is taking place in all areas and new businesses, companies and ventures are proliferating, it is of vital importance that entrepreneurs, businessmen and all business owners protect Intellectual Property through their various categories. In this way, they will prevent their ideas, effort and work from being misused and misappropriated.
It should be emphasized then that resorting to the protection granted by Intellectual Property, in short, will make it easier for any company to be more competitive and to be able to better manage the risks generated by the market, making it difficult for its intangible assets to be violated by third parties.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN BOLIVIA
In Bolivia, the regulatory framework for this matter is made up of Law 1392 on Copyright, and Decision 351 of the Andean Community of Nations. While in the field of Industrial Property, there is the Industrial Privileges Law of December 1916, the Trademark Regulatory Law of January 1918 and Decision 486 of the Andean Community, a rule that is currently applied in its entirety.
The entity in charge of ensuring and granting Intellectual Property Rights is the National Intellectual Property Service. This entity of a decentralized nature of the Central Power, fulfills its role in accordance with the regulations that currently govern the matter in this regard. However, this fact, it is evident that, despite this, unfortunately and due to not having the mechanisms and regulations complementary, this institution of the State, does not manage to grant a clear legal certainty to all national and foreign holders in the protection of their rights.
Apart from this, it must be recognized that, in our country, unfortunately, we do not have an adequate culture of Intellectual Property, due to the lack of awareness and education about the capital importance of this said weakness and lack. It must be addressed by institutions such as SENAPI, more now than ever, due to the advances in technology and the constant innovations that are taking place at every moment. Based on this reality, it is imperative that massive awareness and education campaigns be carried out, not only in the business and entrepreneurial world, but in the social sphere in general. This in order that the consumer and society as a whole, be aware of how intellectual products can be protected, so that they are not deceived with products and services that are not the original ones and that everyone is warned of the damages that The consumer can suffer, consuming fake products, as well as the enormous damage caused by taking over someone else's work.
Without a doubt, a really serious problem that exists in Bolivia is the abusive edition of books, software, music and others. Our firm, Landívar & Landívar, with more than 60 years of experience, works in different legal areas and one of them is Intellectual Property, where through our specialized team, we offer the appropriate advice regarding the registration of trademarks, patents, industrial designs and at the same time, the management of your portfolio and their respective defenses.
We must thus emphasize that the defense of the rights enshrined in Intellectual Property is really of paramount importance to encourage creativity and reward talent, thus promoting creativity and innovation, in order to create a better world.