/>i1. Brazilian President Rousseff has appointed Arthur Chioro, a member of the Worker’s Party, as Brazil’s new Minister of Health. The departing Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, is leaving his post to run for governor of the State of São Paulo. The Ministry of Health has the largest budget of any of the ministries in Brazil at approximately R$106 (approximately U.S. $44.9) billion.
Until his appointment, Mr. Chioro served as the Secretary of Health in São Bernardo do Campo, the 4th largest city in São Paulo state. Mr. Chioro has strong ties to the Workers’ Party and to former President Lula, who is also a resident of São Bernardo do Campo. During his time as Secretary of Health, Mr. Chioro successfully instituted several important health programs and obtained millions of reais in investments from the federal government. Specifically, he established new Public Health Emergency Services Units, inaugurated a new public hospital that will increase (to about 18,000) the number of patients that can be interned under the Brazilian Universal Healthcare System, and supported the “Mais Médico” (More Doctors) program in São Bernardo do Campo by offering positions to Cuban doctors to work in the poorer areas of the city.
Interestingly, Mr. Chioro is being targeted by the São Paulo State Prosecutor for administrative improbity (lack of integrity or dishonesty). Specifically, in September 2013, a civil investigation was initiated to determine the degree to which Chioro violated principles of public administration while serving as Secretary of Health of São Bernardo do Campo. During his tenure as Secretary of Health, Mr. Chioro was the majority owner of a health consulting company that provided services to other municipalities, particularly those municipalities in which Workers’ Party members controlled the municipal governments.
Many thanks to Gustavo de Freitas Morais of Dannemann Siemsen for sharing this information.
2. In a further follow-up to last Friday’s and this Monday’s BRIC-a-BRAC post, Novo Nordisk announced that last week it resigned from the Innovative Pharmaceutical Industry Association South Africa (IPASA) in view of a disagreement with the organization regarding its alleged campaign to delay South Africa’s proposed changes to its patent laws. IPASA is hoping that Novo Nordisk will reconsider its position and remain a part of the organization. To learn more, click here.
3. Section 7(2) of the Indian Patent Act, 1970 requires an Applicant to establish proof of the right to make a patent application. Such a proof of right can be established by submitting “Form-1” (which is executed by the inventors; a copy of which can be found here: Form-1) or a certified/notarized copy of an assignment between the Applicant and inventors. If an application is made by virtue of an assignment of the right to apply for the patent for the invention, an Applicant has 6 months from the date of filing of the application to provide such proof of the right.
In a recent case, NTT DoCoMo Inc. v. The Controller of Patents and Designs, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board held that a proof of right “must be filed for all the applications, ordinary and convention applications, alike”. In view of this decision, it is important that Applicants filing ordinary, convention and National Phase Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in India file a proof of right in order to avoid their applications being refused.
