New law may turn industrial property into social ownership

Venezuelans have the right to patent inventions, to apply for a utility model and to be protected by an industrial design right in order to protect their inventions. However, with the entry into force of the new Labor Law, things could change.

According to the draft Law on the Social Process of Labor, a legal instrument that would replace the current Labor Law, "all scientific, technical, and technological knowledge generated from the social process of labor will be considered social ownership, a national interest issue, and will be at the service of the people."

Although Article 115 of the Venezuelan Constitution says that the right to property is guaranteed, the draft Labor Law grants to the State the right to set the terms, forms, and percentage rate granted to workers who invent new products.

The draft law provides that workers are entitled to a recognition and a share in the profits as determined by the State, "which may grant concessions for its implementation in the production of goods and the provision of services in order to meet people's social needs, ensure a comprehensive human development and a dignified and useful existence for the community."

If these changes take place, the State -in its interventionist efforts- would intend to ignore the rules by which researchers and employers may reach agreements, according to lawyer Castor González Escobar. In his view, the new text ignores the value of industrial property for social and economic development.

He warned that the new law could become a huge obstacle to research. "All workers involved in researches at the service of a third party make it for a fee or consideration. If the State now seeks to determine how the participation of the worker will be recognized, it is basically ignoring the process." González said that industrial property, particularly patents, grant an exclusivity right that is limited in time, since it is assumed that when they are due they become of public interest.

Following Venezuela's withdrawal from the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), the issue of industrial property has been in a "legal limbo." Until 2008, Decision 486 about the Common Intellectual Property Regime of the CAN regulated the registration of patents, trademarks and industrial designs. According to a decision made by the Autonomous Service for Intellectual Property (SAPI), the agency decided to enforce again the Industrial Property Law adopted in 1955.

yfernandez@eluniversal.com

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas