The constitutionalization of intellectual property right

Abstract

This text examines the trajectory of the constitutional protection of intellectual property in Brazil, starting from article 5, items XXVII and XXVIII, of the 1988 Constitution, which grants authors the exclusive right to use, publish and reproduce their works, and grants the authors of industrial inventions a temporary privilege of use, along with the protection of trademarks, company names and other distinctive signs. It then reviews the earlier constitutions: the Imperial Constitution of 1824, which protected the inventor in article 179, paragraph 26, but said nothing about authors' rights; the republican Constitution of 1891, which in article 72, paragraph 26, gave constitutional standing to authors' rights for the first time; the Constitution of 1937, which suppressed the matter; and those of 1946, 1967 and 1988, which restored it. The text concludes that placing intellectual property in the constitutional text was always a disputed matter and that the institute grows stronger with each attempt to suppress it.