Brazilian Patent Office expands patent prosecution acceleration project to all technology fields
Imran K. (Oct 22, 2019)
The new rules aim to simplify procedures for
both the user and the INPI (BPO), and increase possible agreements that
prioritize or process patents and record as examination steps, contributing to
the execution of the process. On average, considering the patents analyzed via
PPH in Brazil in 2019, the concession period is eight months, in some cases
only one month.
Now, with the change,
these rules will be standardized for the agreements, observing the limit of 400
requests per year for the PPHs (one per month for each applicant) and the
inclusion of all technical areas.
Under PPH agreements,
the examination of a patent application can be prioritized in Brazil when it
has already been evaluated at a participating national / regional office of the
agreement (China, Denmark, United States, Europe, Japan, PROSUR, and United
Kingdom). In other hand, if an application has already been examined in Brazil,
it may be issued in the other country with which the INPI has a PPH agreement.
Some requirements for the acceleration of patent
applications in Brazil are: not having started the technical examination;
belong to a patent family which oldest or priority application has been filed
in one of the partner countries or in Brazil where a decision to grant or
substantially approval has been issued.Source: http://www.marcanto.com.br/eng