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Four years after the publication of the first Examination Guidelines for computer-implemented inventions, the Brazilian Patent Office published a new revised version … New Guidelines for Examination of Patent Applications for Computer-Implemented Inventions

The BPTO (Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office) published, by means Resolution No. 235/2019, the phase II of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) … INPI establishes phase II of pilot-projet PPH with Japan (JPO)

In its continued effort to decrease the patent examination backlog, the Brazilian Patent Office has signed its seventh PPH agreement, this time … Brazilian Patent Office establishes PPH pilot project with Denmark

Following the same strategy that has been adopted to deal with the current huge backlog of patent applications still awaiting examination, the BPTO launches one more alternative to accelerate examination of applications in areas considered strategic.

A fter a very long wait, the Brazilian Patent Office finally published the Examination Guidelines for computer-implemented inventions, which went into effect on 6 December 2016, date on which they were published in the Brazilian Official Gazette. The guidelines underwent a process of public consultation and the final version introduced no relevant divergence from the draft document that had been distributed. A translation of the guidelines is enclosed.

As informed in our newsletter 11/15 # 14 the Patent Offices of Brazil and the United States of America instituted a joint PPH pilot program. The details of the program have now been regulated by Resolution 154/2015 of the President of the Brazilian Patent Office, issued on

21 December 2015. A translation into English language of this regulatory instrument is attached here to.

The patent offices of Brazil and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that inaugurates a new era of cooperation between them. A copy of this memorandum is enclosed.

A Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program is a bi-lateral agreement stipulating that each of the two signing countries may make use of the results of searches and examinations conducted by the other. This allows for faster examination and is specifically aimed at decreasing the backlog that is affecting all offices.

The MoU, signed a few days ago, foresees the implementation of a pilot program that will contemplate 150 patent applications originating from each of the two offices. The program is expected to operate between 11 January 2016 and 10 January 2018 and will accept requests for accelerated examination until this term ends or the application quota is filled.

Acceptance of an application into the program presupposes the fulfilment of some conditions which are not the same for both sides. Most importantly, Brazil will limit its efforts to applications in the areas of oil, gas and petrochemistry that have been filed no more than three years before the starting day of the program. The USA will not impose the same limitations, accepting cases in any technological area.

The implementing rules in Brazil are to be published by the Patent Office in the near future.

Please, contact us should you wish more details on this auspicious initiative.

An update on the matter will be sent as soon as further implementation ruling is announced.

For more detailed information on this matter, please contact us via e-mail through mail@kasznarleonardos.com.

The Brazilian Patent Office has finally regulated the procedures concerning the possibility of entering the national phase of international applications after the expiry of the 30-month term foreseen in the PCT.

As you may know, the PCT has suffered many recent changes. One of them was the introduction of Rule 49.6 which allows a designated office to accept an application after the end of the 30-month term. The applicant must show that the failure to meet the deadline was unintentional or occurred in spite of due care required by the circumstances. This rule has been in force since 01 January 2003, and each office may apply either criterion or both.

In Resolution 212/09, dated 14 May 2009, the Brazilian Patent Office did not specifically mention these two criteria, but rather defined fortuitous case and force majeure as the two reasons that may justify the delay by the applicant. The definition given to these two criteria is one and the same: “the forthcoming unpredictable and unavoidable event, natural or deriving from human action, superior and extraneous to the applicant's will that, by the influence thereof, prevented him from carrying out the act that he was supposed to.”

In either situation, a request must be presented describing the facts that caused the delay, and evidence of such facts must be submitted. A tax must also be paid. The request will be examined by the Patent Office and a decision will be made as to either accept the application or not. If the request is denied, the application will be considered as withdrawn in respect of Brazil. An appeal may be lodged against such a rejecting decision.

Very recently, by means of Resolution 113/2013, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office, henceforth the INPI, declared a change in its interpretation of the restoration clause that was inserted by the legislators in Law 9279/96 — the Brazilian Industrial Property Law[1].

This restoration clause gives to those that did not pay an annuity during the regular and extended terms, the opportunity to revive their case after a notice communicating its forfeiture is published.

Until the advent of this new interpretation, a single notice could be published in connection with a set of unpaid annuities. Actually, as the INPI had very little control over the annuity fees that were paid, it was quite common that many years would pass before a notice was published. Therefore, whenever it came to be published, the notice would inform that the forfe