Member Voices
Stephanie Consonni de Schryver
New Leader of WLG’s Intellectual Property Group
TozziniFreire Advogados (Brazil)
1. Briefly describe your practice.
As an Intellectual Property (IP) partner of a full-service law firm, you do a bit of everything within the IP realm: from trademark prosecution to drafting, reviewing and negotiating IP and Technology agreements (especially because we work very closely with the M&A team on transactions involving technology), software, and IP assets. We also do patent prosecution and litigation, domain name disputes, entertainment law, and copyrights.
2. You are a new leader of the Intellectual Property Practice Group. What trending topics do you look forward to discussing?
I think Artificial Intelligence will be one of the main trending topics for sure, but I am also excited to discuss and learn more about IP and Greenwashing, Sustainability and Innovation, which I believe will also be a big topic of discussion.
3. How do you think the growing implementation of technology will shift the legal landscape in IP?
I try to see it as a positive thing. The use of technology certainly brings challenges to intellectual property as is the case with discussions regarding AI platform databases. On the other hand, nowadays we have many more tools available to help us monitor online infringements, for example, which allows us to offer broader protection to our clients.
Furthermore, there are ways to implement technology to make our day-to-day lives more efficient, so that we can focus more on strategic cases and spend less time on administrative and repetitive tasks, which is certainly a point to be explored through the responsible use of AI.
4. Is there anything of note happening within the IP sphere in Brazil that WLG colleagues should be aware of?
One of the main points that has been debated in Brazil in relation to IP is biopiracy and the protection of the rights to traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples. Biopiracy has also been debated a lot in Europe and we expect to see impacts of these discussions in Brazil too, as we are already seeing, for example, the recent decision that patent applications will have to indicate the use of knowledge from indigenous peoples.
In addition, the race to approve the artificial intelligence bill is also one of the topics of the moment.
5. Can you share something you have watched, read, or listened to lately that has impacted you?
I recently read a book called "Roar," by Cecilia Ahern. It is a collection of short stories told by women from different cultures, ethnicities, and religions about their view on day-to-day society, from their perspectives and in a way that is not obvious. At the same time, these women have very different realities. As a woman, you can relate to all of the stories and that impacted me.
I always think about this book in different situations in my life and one of them was meeting and talking to so many interesting women at INTA in Atlanta and hearing their perspectives on the market and their work environment. I see it as a way for women to connect and support women, which is a motivation for me on many different levels.
