Living and Doing Business in Brazil - Essay Example

Brazil offers adequate protection for intellectual property rights from a legal perspective. In the year 2003, Brazil enforced an anti-piracy law according to which, the violators of intellectual property rights would be given penalties of up to four years in prison with an additional charge of a fine (Novais, 2011). However, there is a discrepancy between what Brazil says and what Brazil does with respect to the protection of intellectual property rights. According to the former US ambassador to the UN, Kenneth Adelman, “Brazil is a prominent member of the axis of IP [intellectual property] evil… flagrantly disregarded intellectual property rights” (Adelman cited in knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu, 2006). In March 2005, the government of Brazil publicly disclosed its plans of breaking the patents on these anti-retroviral medications; Gilead’s Tenofovir, Abbott Laboratories’ Lopinavir, Merck’s Efavirenz, and Ritonavir if these drugs’ manufacturers did not allow Brazil to purchase them at discounted prices or to make their genetic equivalents. Brazil eventually got into an agreement with Abbott to reduce Lopinavir’s cost while protecting the patent of the drug. That agreement did not allow the Brazilian manufacturers to make the drug’s generic version for the domestic market. In spite of that commitment, Brazil designed its strategy to spur business rather than save Brazilian lives. Brazil does not protect intellectual property rights. In fact, the illegal seizure of information and US technology is one of the reasons that Brazil today is the tenth-largest economy in the world.

1. 4: Ans.

            In Brazil, detention centers in most of the states are overcrowded. Pre-trial detention is usually lengthy and torture persists as a major problem. The government has been taking measures to eradicate forced labor but none of the efforts has proven effective in the long run. This is evident from the fact that “The federal government has taken important steps to eradicate forced labor since 1995, including creating mobile investigation units to examine conditions in rural areas and publishing a “black list” of employers found to have used forced labor” (Human Rights Watch, 2011). However, over 4000 workers were found to have been forced into labor by the Pastoral Land Commission in the year 2010. In spite of all federal efforts to eliminate forced labor from the country, it still does exist in some states. Rural activists and indigenous leaders are exposed to violence and terrorism.