BPTO merges PPH agreements and extends possibility of fast-tracking to all technological fields
On October 22, 2019, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) published Resolution No. 252, which merges the rules of all the current Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot projects, and extends the project to all technological fields. The Resolution will come into effect as from December 1, 2019 and will last 3 years.
According to the office, the change aims to simplify the procedures for both the user and the BPTO, and expand the potential of these agreements which prioritize patent prosecution and reduce examination steps, contributing to fast-track the process.
Similar to previous agreements, this project stipulates that a patent application may have its examination fast-tracked in Brazil if it belongs to a patent family whose application has already been allowed or granted by one of the participating offices, namely: EPO (Europe), CNIPA (China), USPTO (United States), UKIPO (United Kingdom), DKPTO (Denmark), JPO (Japan) and PROSUL (including patent offices from Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Costa Rica). At this new project, up to 400 participation requests from any technological field may be accepted per year, and only 1 patent application per applicant may be submitted per monthly cycle.
According to the BPTO, the average timeline for granting applications submitted to PPH in Brazil has been of 8 months.
If you need further information, please contact us at patents@murtagoyanes.com.br.