The Cuban Industrial Property Office (OCPI) signed memoranda of understanding in 2024 with institutions in several countries on its project related to the management and commercialisation of Science and Technology Parks (PCT) in the IT sector.
The respective documents were signed by representatives of the national institution with PCTs Tecnopuci and Porto Digital, both from Brazil; Entertech Teknokent, Istanbul University; Bilisim Vadisi, also from Turkey; and Monterrey, in Mexico.
María de los Ángeles Sánchez Torres, director of the OCPI, added in her annual briefing, exclusive to the Cuban News Agency, that they also focused on research projects with the University of Havana and the Cuban Neuroscience Centre, and the participation of patent examiners.
He specified that the main activities were directed at research on the state of the art, advice on Cuban patent legislation and on patentable subject matter in Cuba and abroad.
Sánchez Torres added in his inventory of activities the guide for the identification of technical solutions close to the invention, the technical exchange for the strategic drafting of applications and the evaluation of the results to be protected, among others.
Regarding the dissemination of their specialities, he said that they updated 16 bulletins of technological alerts on food safety, renewable energy, construction, environment, industry 4.0 and circular economy, available on the entity’s website, on the most recent patents that exist in the world.
In addition, the Official Bulletin of Industrial Property for the periods 1906-1915, 1931-1934 and from 1968 to November 2024, about information on applications and administrative procedures of its modalities that expose the OCPI.
They implemented the WIPO-DAS (Digital Access Service) service for the priority documents of their national applications, which facilitates their processing abroad, which was used by the BIOCUBAFARMA centres and the University Foundation for Innovation and Development of the University of Havana.
They updated the online databases for trademarks (110254), patents (5764) and industrial designs (806 registrations in all cases at http://wiposearch.ocpi.cu/wopublish-search.
Cuba joined the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) global database on trademarks and industrial designs https://www3.wipo.int/branddb/es/, which includes a tool for searching trademark images based on artificial intelligence, a fundamental aspect for the examination of graphic interference of distinctive signs.
They use the WIPO-FILE System in the trade mark modality for the online order procedure, which allows the Provincial Sections of the institution of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment to be aware of it.
In turn, the electronic handling of documents for the administrative management of the procedure for the granting of modalities and the electronic exchange of documents for the administration of the International Treaties and Agreements to which Cuba is a party.
They also made progress in the digitalisation of patent, trademark and other distinctive signs files, which is part of the process of digitalisation of administrative procedures and the country’s commercial, industrial and technological historical memory.
They issued a total of 89 opinions on the management of industrial property in investment projects, and several of them correspond to requests from users of the Mariel Special Development Zone.
They expanded the Network of Technology and Innovation Support Centres (CATI Network) to 22 centres, distributed among the Technological Information Centres in each province and some universities and research centres.
They improved the functioning of the portal for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises on the OCPI website and incorporated the World Intellectual Property Organisation tool and integration into the Latin American Network of Intellectual Property and Gender, and the publication of statistics on patents and gender and the life stories of Cuban women scientists.
