Ana Messina is Director and Managing Partner of Pellerano & Messina. A specialized lawyer in Intellectual Property with an experience and practice of over 35 years that positions she is one of the pioneers in the field of Intellectual Property in the Dominican Republic.

As a consultant to the Executive Branch (1994-2000), Ana served as a link between the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Dominican State, during the process of adapting national Intellectual Property legislation to the Agreement on Aspects of the Intellectual Property Rights related to Commerce (TRIPS), which in the year 2000 resulted in the creation of the Industrial Property Law No. 20-00, thus abolishing Laws No. 4994 on Patents of Invention dated 1911, and No. 1450 on Trademarks dated 1993, hence establishing the National Office of Industrial Property (ONAPI). Similarly, she advised the Dominican State on the multilateral free trade agreement of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) (1994), and again on the Trademark Law Treaty (TLT) (2011).

Her active participation and collaboration in the development of public policies allowed her to promote and defend the Compulsory Patent Licenses, as a mechanism to face the crisis in the health sector in the Dominican Republic.

Starting her career as a paralegal in Messina & Messina (1979-2000), Ana continued her professional development after obtaining her law degree, initially as a junior lawyer and subsequently Senior, Director of the Department of Intellectual Property and Managing Partner. She acted as Managing Partner in Biaggi & Messina (2000-2016), and thereafter as Managing Partner in Messina & Lugo IP (BMLIP) (2016-2019).

Ana received her Bachelor of Laws from Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (UNPHU) in 1985; she also studied at the University of Georgetown, USA in 1982, the Sorbonne University, Paris in 1979; and the Fundación Getulio Vargas (FGV), Brazil in 2004.

Ana Messina is currently Secretary of the National Delegation of the Administrative Council (since 2018) of the Inter-American Association of Intellectual Property (ASIPI), for which she acted as National Delegate of the Dominican Republic for 13 uninterrupted years (1987-2000); and has also participated as Moderator of Work Sessions and Workshops for INTA, ASIPI, and WIPO.

Ana is fluent in French, Spanish, English, and Italian languages.

• American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM)

• Dominican Association of Intellectual Property (ADOPI) – Founding member (1998) and Former President of the Association

• International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI)

• Pharmaceutical Trade Marks Group (PTMG)

• Inter-American Association of Intellectual Property (ASIPI)

• International Trademark Association (INTA)