Opening a business in Brazil can be a lucrative venture, but protecting your products and intellectual property in this large nation can be surprisingly different from how ideas and designs are protected in the United States. While Brazil has only recently begun to catch up with modern thinking about protecting an idea, there are new laws and regulations you should be aware of before starting a business in this country.
You may want to consider hiring a company that can help you wade through all of the legal wording for any copyright, intellectual property, and patent laws, as some of it can get fairly technical. There is currently a large backlog for patents pending, which can take several years to process. This makes it critical to learn how to navigate the process of applying for a patent or copyright protection from the very beginning.
One benefit of the Brazilian legal system is that infringement of your designs is not only a civil matter; it is also a crime. This gives you added protection, once you have obtained legal protection for your company’s designs and ideas.
There is the misconception that copyright piracy is rampant in Brazil, which is not necessarily accurate. While there are people in Brazil who would commit copyright infringement, it is no more of a problem in this country, today, than it is in other countries. The nation’s economic boom is creating less of a desire for pirated products, since the public is more than capable of paying for these products, so you need not worry about the safety of your copyrights when opening a business in Brazil.