Information Technology in Argentina
Protection Of Property Rights
Argentina adheres to various treaties and International agreements on intellectual property and Belongs to the world intellectual property Organization (wipo) and the world trade organization (wto). The argentine congress ratified the Uruguay Round Agreements, including the provisions on Intellectual property, as law 24.425 on January 5, 1995.
Patents
Patent law is the weakest element in Argentine intellectual property rights. In 1991, the Menem Administration submitted to the Argentine Congress a draft patent law designed to improve overall patent protection and extend it immediately to pharmaceuticals. After years of intermittent debate, the argentine congress enacted a law in 1995 which falls far short of the administration's commitments to the United Sates. The law imposes a five-year transition period for pharmaceuticals, contains no pipeline protection, and has unacceptably wide provisions for compulsory licenses. The Argentine government issued patent law regulations in March 1996 which fell far short of what had been sought by the U.S. government. In 1996, the Argentine government submitted to the congress a draft law on test data exclusivity that would meet some U.S. concerns. The flawed patent regime could hinder Argentina's ability to compete effectively with other Latin American countries which have strong patent protection.
Copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and semiconductor chip layout design
Intellectual property protection for books, films, music, and software
in Argentina has improved since 1989 and is generally adequate. In late
1995, a lower court invalidated a decree extending copywrite protection
to software, and the software industry immediately appealed the decision
to the Argentine Supreme Court. Argentine authorities have undertaken efforts
to combat piracy of videotapes and other copyrighted material. The government
has improved the process for trademark registration. Argentina has no specific
law on trade secrets, although penalties for unauthorized revelation of
secrets are applied to a limited degree under commercial law. Argentina
has signed the WIPO treaty on integrated circuits, but has no law dealing
specifically with the protection of layout designs and semiconductors.[2]
Software Piracy
The lack of full intellectual property protection and particularly the lack of modern patent protection encourages "pirating" of inventions patented in other countries, hurts Argentina's reputation, and discourages high-tech investment in the country. However, the trend is toward less piracy, as efforts are stepped up to identify and punish offenders; lawsuits have been filed against over 100 firms. With recent amendments that extended Argentina's 1933 copyright law to cover software and computer databases, the legal regime is considered adequate by international standards.
PIRACY RATE: 74 percent
LAW: Copyright Law (1933), as amended and supplemented by special laws, including Presidential decree 165/94 (2/94)
TERM: Life of the author + 30 years
SCOPE: Computer programs are explicitly protected as literary works; data bases are also explicitly protected
SANCTIONS: Civil and criminal remedies
AGREEMENTS: Berne--Brussels (1967); UCC--Geneva (1958); Bilateral (1934); GATT (1967)
The Argentinean Congress is considering a law to extend copyright protection
to life of the author + 50 years; registration is voluntary; computer programs
are not patentable; on Special 301 Watch List (1989-1992); on Special 301
Priority Watch List (1993 and 1994); BSA estimates that the software publishing
and distribution industries lost $111.5 million in 1993 due to application
software piracy in Argentina [14]
Privacy
As is the case in most Asian and African countries, there are few laws in South American countries that restrict transborder data flows. However, computerization in South American countries lag behind, and does not allow efficient and effective collection of individual data by private organizations. Almost all of the recorded private data are in government data bases. The governments of these countries are unlikely to release personal data for use by foriegn corporations.
Analysis:
IT Strengths and Weaknesses
Last Updated: 5/3/97
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