December 12, 2023
The BRPTO published in its Official Gazette #2762 of December 12, 2023, a short statement containing an interesting development on the examination of patent applications. For the first time since 1970, when the BRPTO was created, the examination of patent applications will follow the submission date of the examination request instead of the filing date (for the regular track). This new ordering procedure should be implemented as of January 1, 2024.
Please see below an English version of said statement.
The BRPTO’s strict understanding of the provisions of Article 32 of the Brazilian Patent Statute remains the same. Therefore, any modifications the applicant intends to make to broaden or change the scope of the claims should be submitted to the BRPTO prior to the request for examination. After the request for examination, only modifications intended to better define, correct translation errors, or restrict the scope of the protection claimed are acceptable.
From December 2022 to November 2023 the BRPTO issued a total of 21,814 decisions. Currently, there are 43,097 patent applications duly filed pending examination — for which the examination request has already been filed.
Based on this backlog, the BRPTO would take approximately two years to start the substantive examination of the patent applications with new examination requests.
The BRPTO did not inform if the 43,097 patent applications for which the examination request has already been filed will maintain their position on the queue or will be reassigned starting on January 1, 2024.
The original version of said statement can be found here. For more information on said publication, please contact us at patents@lickslegal.com. We will be glad to assist you.
