From 7 July, the Mercosur IPR Helpdesk has considerably expanded its services to include more than 18 Latin American countries, including Mexico, Colombia and Peru. This change is reflected in the Helpdesk’s new name, the Latin America IPR SME Helpdesk.
Chile, Brazil, Argentina and the rest of the Mercosur countries will also be covered by the new Helpdesk. It will still provide high quality first-line advice on intellectual property matters through its Helpline. It will also offer face-to-face and online training and other e-learning materials.
The new project name should also make the Helpdesk more recognisable to users. It will be gradually implemented across the website and materials issued by the Helpdesk over the coming weeks.
The MERCOSUR IPR SME Helpdesk, funded by the European Commission, facilitates the expansion of the European Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) which are interested in or already operating in the MERCOSUR region and Chile, through increased know-how of the usage and enforcement of the Intellectual Property (IP) rights system. Its purpose is to promote free trade and the fluid movement of goods, people, and currency. The official languages are Spanish, Portuguese and Guarani. It has been updated, amended, and changed many times since. It is now a full customs union and a trading bloc.
Source: European Observatory on Infrigements of Intellectual Property Rights
