English Transcription

Welcome to another episode of DBPACast, the podcast of the law firm Di Blasi, Parente & Associados. I’m Hannah Fernandes, an attorney and franchise specialist, and today, we’ll dive into a topic increasingly relevant in the business world: franchises and the importance of intellectual property protection in this business model.

Let’s begin by emphasizing that franchises are a popular way to start a business, but many entrepreneurs overlook the importance of protecting their intangible assets. In this episode, we’ll demystify this subject and show how intellectual property can be a competitive edge for franchisors and franchisees.

1. What is Intellectual Property, and Why is it Important in Franchises?

We’ll start by defining intellectual property. Simply put, it’s the set of rights related to creations of the human intellect, such as inventions, artistic works, symbols, names, or images used in commerce. These assets are essential for innovation and market competitiveness.

In the context of franchises, intellectual property plays an even more vital role. Think of brands like McDonald’s or Starbucks; the franchise’s value is directly tied to its brand, know-how, and systems developed over the years. For example:

• Trademarks: The name and logo that make the franchise recognizable worldwide.

• Patents: Exclusive inventions, such as specific equipment or unique manufacturing processes.

• Copyrights: Materials like operational manuals, training, and marketing resources.

• Know-how: Technical knowledge, including procedures, strategies, and practices passed on to franchisees.

Protecting these assets not only enhances brand value but also ensures a significant competitive advantage. Franchises that safeguard their intellectual property maintain their identity and consistency across different markets, strengthening consumer and partner trust.

2. The Main Risks of Not Protecting Intellectual Property in a Franchise

Now, let’s discuss what happens when a franchise fails to take proper measures to protect its intellectual property:

• Copies and Imitations: Without registration, other businesses can copy the concept, brand, and even operational methods, reducing exclusivity and market value.

• Loss of Brand Control: Without legal protections, franchisees or competitors can use the brand in ways that harm its reputation and consistency.

• Conflict Resolution Challenges: Disputes over intellectual property misuse can become lengthy and costly. Without formal registrations, chances of winning these disputes decrease.

• Reputation Damage: Unauthorized use can lead to poor-quality services or products associated with the brand, eroding consumer trust.

These risks can be devastating for any business, especially in a competitive sector like franchising, where identity and consistency are key elements.

3. How to Protect Intellectual Property in a Franchise

The good news is that there are several strategies to protect a franchise’s intellectual property. Let’s explore some in detail:

• Strong Franchise Agreements: A well-drafted agreement is essential. It should include confidentiality clauses to protect know-how and clear rules about brand usage, technology transfer, and other intellectual property matters.

• Formal Registration of Assets: Trademarks and patents should be registered with relevant authorities, such as the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in Brazil. Registration ensures exclusivity and facilitates legal defense against misuse.

• Knowledge and Know-how Management: Protecting the transfer of strategic knowledge is crucial. This can be done through training, access control systems, and compliance monitoring among franchisees.

• Practical Tips:

• Conduct regular audits to ensure assets are used as outlined in contracts.
• Implement continuous monitoring policies to detect potential infringements early.

Additionally, having a specialized legal team can make a significant difference in drafting agreements and registering assets.

4. Practical Cases and Examples

Let’s look at some examples that highlight the importance of protecting intellectual property:

• Success Case: A major gym chain secured its exclusive training system through patents and copyrights for instructional materials. This ensured uniformity and quality of experience, even during international expansion.

• Failure Case: Conversely, a bakery chain faced problems when expanding into a new market without registering its trademark. Local competitors exploited this oversight, launching similar products under nearly identical names, leading to years of legal battles and financial losses.

• Judicial Decisions: Recently, a court case highlighted the importance of confidentiality clauses in franchise agreements when a former franchisee attempted to replicate the business model after the contract ended.
These examples show that protecting intellectual property isn’t just a formality but a survival and growth strategy in the competitive franchise market.

5. Legislative Updates and Market Trends

To conclude, we need to discuss recent legislative changes and trends shaping the future of intellectual property protection in franchises:

• Legislative Changes: In many countries, intellectual property laws are being updated to address gaps created by technological advances. In Brazil, for example, proposed bills aim to enhance trademark and patent protections.

• Impact of New Technologies: Technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence are redefining how companies register and monitor asset use. These tools enable more effective tracking of intellectual property violations and facilitate copyright and trademark enforcement.

• Market Trends: As the franchise market becomes increasingly globalized, companies need a more proactive approach to ensure their legal protections are recognized across different jurisdictions. The use of digital platforms for registering and monitoring assets is a growing and promising trend.

Stay tuned for more insights in future episodes of DBPACast. Thank you for joining us!

English Transcription

Hello, listeners of DBPACast!  

Welcome to the second episode of our podcast. Where we explore the most relevant and current topics in the field of Intellectual Property and the world.   

In today’s episode, we have the honor of welcoming Paulo Parente, founding partner at  Di Blasi, Parente & Associados, who will share with us a bit of his experience attending another edition of the INTA Annual Meeting, one of the biggest and most important events in the Intellectual Property sector worldwide. Which this year took place from May 18 to 22 in Atlanta, gathering professionals, experts, and industry leaders to discuss the latest trends, the innovations and the challenges shaping the future of Intellectual Property. 

Welcome to DBPACast, Dr. Paulo.  

Hey, Cayo! Great! Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here on the second episode of our podcast, very proud of this project. It’s a space where we will certainly have many special guests discussing very relevant topics in our field.  

Thank you, Dr. Paulo! We would like to know how your experience was participating in another edition of the INTA Annual Meeting, this time in Atlanta, USA. Besides all the networking the event offers, all the reunions, the connections established, and the traditional party of the band “The Opposition,” which you participate.

How was all that?  

Well, Cayo, I have been attending INTA for a long time, right? It’s been almost 28, maybe almost 30 years that I’ve been participating in the INTA Annual Meeting. And attending another edition of this event was an extraordinary and memorable experience for me.  

This year, the event took place in Atlanta, USA, as you know. As always, INTA provided us with a unique combination of learning, networking, and fun. Each edition offers a priceless opportunity to reunite with long-time colleagues and friends, and this one wasn’t different.  

Reliving memories and sharing news with acquaintances from past years was one of the highlights of my participation. Besides the meetings, I had the opportunity to establish new connections. One of the most anticipated moments was the traditional party of the band, which I have the honor and pleasure of being a part of for many years: “The Opposition Band”. The party was a huge success. Playing with the band for such an enthusiastic audience in a spectacular place is always an incredible experience.  

I even posted some photos and videos on my social media. Remembering that the entire band is made up of lawyers from around the whole world, who have music as a hobby.  We are not professionals.

 It’s an incredible moment, it’s spectacular. The venue this year was even more impressive when we arrived at that stage, I felt like being almost a professional musician playing a concert here in Brazil. The event organization was impeccable, combined with the hospitality of the city of Atlanta, making this edition of INTA one of the most remarkable for me.  

Great, Dr. Paulo. And before this trip to Atlanta, Di Blasi, Parente & Associados was once again the exclusive host in Brazil for the INTA Pre-Annual Meeting Reception, which is a reception that precedes this annual international event.

How does the firm feel about the tradition of organizing this event, being the only firm in Brazil to do so?  

It is indeed an honor, and we have been hosting the Pre-Annual Meeting Reception for a few years now. We are the hosts in Brazil, and this event precedes the annual international meeting, serving as a call for people not only those who are going to INTA, but also to spread knowledge about the topics discussed in Intellectual Property here in Brazil. Hosting renowned professionals in the IP field is always an enriching and inspiring experience for all of us. The presence of renowned specialists, such as the director of the BPTO, representatives of big companies, and universities, this year, added a huge value to our event organized at ABL, the Brazilian Academy of Letters, a place that tells a bit of the history of Rio de Janeiro itself, of Brazil, and the place is physically connected to our office. 

So, basically, being the host of this reception also highlights Brazil’s importance in the global intellectual property landscape. This is very important.

Very good. And now, going back to the trip to INTA in Atlanta, the team that was with you, participating in this event – we know that each one had their own meetings and schedules. How was this interaction?  

Whenever we go to an event, we try to take our team, those who already have connections in certain associations. This year was no different; we had a total of 5 professionals. Each one looking for organizing their schedules in a very objective way, of course, participating in various receptions from different firms and clients, providing us even more networking opportunities and moments of informality. There are breakfast receptions, coffee breaks, others are lunches or dinners, and there are also direct meetings with our international clients and correspondents. The more capable and competent are the professionals we have who know the subject and create their own networking, the better it is for our firm.   

One of our professionals, Pedro Campos, took over a table topic that I couldn’t go, and he handled it very well. From what I’ve heard, the people who met with him praised him a lot. So, it’s very important to have a strong presence at these events, and bringing more professionals is an investment by the firm and a personal and professional investment by each of them. It’s crucial to mark the firm’s presence at major events like INTA, for example.

The participation of the team is indeed important. And you also moderated one of the most explored table topics, talking about artificial intelligence and how these technologies are adding value to the daily operations of firms and their clients. How was this discussion?  

It was very interesting. Artificial intelligence is the trending topic of the moment, everyone is talking about it, trying to understand it. I even heard recently in Mexico an interesting expression: “Artificial Intelligence at this moment is just the tip of the iceberg”. We are at the beginning, and already a lot is happening. So, everyone is interested in trying to understand better and share experiences. We had a discussion in Atlanta with professionals from Honduras, El Salvador, Jamaica, the USA, California, and Brazil with me. It was a rich discussion about how Artificial Intelligence is being perceived in different countries.

So, I mean, it was a rich discussion with places where we see that Artificial Intelligence, for example, hasn’t come with a strong force yet. There’s no regulation here in Brazil. What we have are several bills trying to regulate it or not. It’s a matter that has a very large discussion in our National Congress. Some are in favor, others are against, but we have interesting discussions in the field of Artificial Intelligence, also focused on copyright or author’s rights. And it was interesting listening and exchanging experiences. Some professionals from different countries are seeing the advancement of artificial intelligence. Not only in everyday work, but also in its application in office management.

It is very interesting. We really need to keep up with these advances. And one of the pillars also fostered during the event is diversity, inclusion, equality, and this ends up leading me to “Brand Action”, which is a project that our firm has been supporting. So how was it participating in another edition of this project? Tell us about it.

It’s very interesting. “Brand Action” is an institution that fosters support from brands and companies. Projects that have social responsibility and we have been supporting Brand Action for some time now. There was a reception this year, where people could buy products to help with the funds raised, help in the campaign that was being carried out. This year, the focus was to raise funds to help feed people and victims of problems in Haiti.

So, it was very interesting. Several new companies also joined this fight as sponsors of Brand Action. And I thought it was a very well-done job by all those involved directly or indirectly. This activation makes brands help make the world a better place reducing sadness, hunger, all that.

This interaction and support is very important indeed. And now, going back to the event, could you mention to our listeners some solution, some innovative approach that you saw during the event that could be applied in the day-to-day of firms and clients or even something that we have already applied? 

Cayo, I can’t help but also point out what you brought to us: innovation. In some meetings, when they asked me for that physical business card in paper, I would show our NFC card as an innovative solution also thinking about one of the themes of the event itself, which is sustainability. So, when I would show it to people, with a simple touch of this card on their cell phones, depending on the device, all the data from our firm, my data, WhatsApp, everything else was immediately shared with them. So, this had many people surprised, and all that is within the spirit of ours, isn’t it? Protecting innovation, innovating to protect.

I also wanted to congratulate you here, not only for that, but for all the work, the support you gave all of us, Renata Melles. It was a work not only of the team that went to Atlanta, but it was a job here in Brazil too, which was a very well-done job. It is very important to bring this awareness to all those who work with us as well. So, it was very cool and I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate you and the whole team, everyone in the firm, directly or indirectly, who helped prepare everything for INTA and to be this success that I am sure was absolute. 

It’s very gratifying to see this success happening! I could speak for everyone on the team. That is unanimous. And now for us to close the conversation, we really want to know your opinion: What was INTA’s biggest contribution? What did this edition bring to the field of intellectual property? 

Concern for a sustainable and better world, with people, for the planet, for the world. And we who work in the field of intellectual property, who always talk about technology and innovation not only in the robotic part, but in the human being, right? I mean, part of this innovation is the human being. So, when you bring practically 9500 people together in a city like Atlanta, to talk about Intellectual Property, there is all this connection between people and thoughts and brainstorms arise. It is discussed at their round tables, discussed in their panels, discussed in all meetings, what we can do to make the world better. I think that’s a great contribution of INTA, just like many other associations we are part of. But INTA was really interesting this year, it was very impactful to me, the message it gave to all those who participated in this magnificent conference.

Perfect! Thank you very much, Dr. Paulo, for your participation here in the second episode of the DBPACast and, to our listeners, until next time!

 
Thank you, I hope it has encouraged people to learn more about INTA and its importance, about what are our Pre-Annual Meeting Receptions. We hope people get involved more and more in the study and dissemination of Intellectual Property, not only in Brazil but anywhere on the planet.