Intellectual Property in Public Companies: an analysis of Embrapa's trademarks applications

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show the relevant aspects about the applications of trademarks from a public company in Brazil, in particular, the panorama of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). The objective is to analyze the data of trademark applications in Brazil, questions about how the company works and the management of these intangible assets for the development of the company and the environment in which it operates. For the development of the research, an exploratory and descriptive case study was carried out, with a mixed approach (quanti-qualitative), through interviews of employees of the institution and by research in the main databases related to intellectual property, among the years 1970 to 2018, using the term “Embrapa” as the search term. All platforms surveyed had an increasing number of orders over the years. At the INPI base, 484 trademark applications were found, most of which are registered trademarks. It can be concluded that the advance in the protection of trademarks by Embrapa is noticeable, this advance may occur due to investments and market actions. However, despite the fact that the company has a relatively well-known trademark registration process, this procedure is not documented and there was a need to carry out the process documentation, as well as the guidance and training of the teams for protection and enforcement correctly the procedures for registering trademarks with the INPI.