Vítor Palmela Fidalgo

Portugal flag Portuguese

13+ years of experience

Language:

English

Spanish and Portuguese

Present Function:

Partner at the law firm Inventa and also a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, where he teaches, among other subjects, Intellectual Property Law.
Listed as an arbitrator with ARBITRARE, the Portuguese institutional centre for disputes concerning Industrial Property, .PT domain names, and trade names, and he frequently serves in other institutional arbitration forums.

In September 2024, appointed to the PMAC Expert Committee as Portugal’s representative for a six-year term.

Many research and publications on arbitration and intellectual property, together with his involvement in the 2023 legislative transposition of EU Directives 2019/789 and 2019/790, further attest to his expertise at the intersection of IP and dispute resolution.

General Expertise:

Technical Expertise:

Certifications and/or licenses
Certification in the Advanced Course on Arbitration and Mediation Procedure under the WIPO Rules
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Professional legal or litigation experience related to the scope of competence of the PMAC

He worked for thirteen years as an attorney in intellectual property consultancy and litigation, encompassing patents, utility models, and trade secrets. This work has been carried out at Inventa, in Lisbon, where he also became a Partner. Within this practice, he has drafted technology transfer agreements between companies from several jurisdictions, patent licensing contracts, and freedom-to-operate analyses for generic pharmaceutical companies. In litigation, when representing companies accused of infringement, he frequently pleads the invalidity of patents and utility models as a line of defence.

He has likewise represented clients before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union in trademark matters.

His expertise in national and European patent law also derives from his academic and research activities at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, the Research Centre for Private Law (CIDP), and the Portuguese Association of Intellectual Property Law (APDI). Among other subjects, he lectures on Intellectual Property Law and regularly teaches classes on the Unified Patent Court and the European Patent with Unitary Effect.

Since 2016, he has acted as an arbitrator in disputes involving industrial property rights, particularly patents. Most of these cases have taken place at ARBITRARE and concerned special remuneration for employee inventions.

In 2023, he contributed to the transposition of EU Directives 2019/789 and 2019/790, in particular by drafting provisions and regulations governing disputes subject to voluntary and mandatory arbitration.

Memberships and/or accreditations
He has been listed as an arbitrator with ARBITRARE, the Portuguese institutional centre for disputes concerning Industrial Property, .PT domain names, and trade names, and has frequently served in other institutional arbitration forums since 2016.

He has also been listed as an arbitrator with CAL - the Centre for Arbitration of Civil, Commercial and Administrative Disputes of the Portuguese Bar Association - since 2023.