By Claudio Roberto Barbosa

Companies commonly consider their databases as an intellectual asset. Brazilian Copyright Law recognizes that companies own the architecture of databases that can be considered works of authorship, either by the selection, organization or disposition of its contents (article 7, XIII of Federal Law n. 9.610/1998). However, some aspects must be considered when databases contain private information (usually consumer’s data). Given that such data relate to natural persons’ privacy, strong objections are raised in society against the unauthorized treatment and transfer of such information. Unlike other countries, only now this became an issue in Brazil and under an scrutiny of experts and the allegedly mistreatment of client’s personal data by some companies that the debate about the new draft bill of law was recently introduced.

For the last thirty years, Brazilian legal framework has superficially touched the protection of personal data.  Dispositions were spread in the Federal Constitution, the Consumer Protection Code, the federal laws on access to public information and on industrial property, as well as on the Civil Rights Framework for the internet. Still, the lack of a single law fully regulating the issue has led to undesired levels of legal uncertainty.

An old promise of the Ministry of Justice, the Draft Bill of Law on the Protection of Personal Data was finally disclosed last January. Long-awaited by companies, lawyers and consumer defense entities, the draft is under public consultation until April 30, 2015 and might be refined bt the Ministry before its submission to the Congress. It is already possible, though, from the analysis of the document, to derive some conclusions that may guide companies with regard to the best practices to be adopted until the effective enactment of the law.

Brazil chapter.

Legal framework

The growth of the Brazilian market and economy is parallelled by the increase of counterfeiting activities. The enforcement of IP rights involves planning, technology, intelligence, training and coordination, with support from a number of laws and treaties, as well as the relevant rules of the Federal Constitution, the Civil Code, the Criminal Code, the Civil Procedure Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and administrative statutory instruments. The legal framework for anticounterfeiting includes:

• the Industrial Property Law (Law 9,279/96);

• the Copyright Law (Law 9,610/98); and

• the Software Law (Law 9,609/98).

In addition, Brazil is a signatory to the main international IP instruments, such as:

• the Paris Convention for the Protection

of Industrial Property (as reviewed in Stockholm in 1967);

• the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs);

• the Berne Convention f