(BRPTO’s gazette of January 9 th , 2018)The Brazilian PTO issued an official notification today, on its gazette #2453, relieving the Patent Board of the obligation of examining powers of attorney submitted with briefs filed until the publication of the application by the BRPTO, based on Decree #9094/2017.According to the BRPTO, this new proceeding reduces bureaucracy of administrative proceedings and the response time of the BRPTO’s patent division during the examination of patent applications and their granting.This new proceeding does not remove the need to submit the power of attorney within the legal term established by article 216 of the Brazilian Patent Statute, i.e., the power of attorney must be submitted within 60 days from the performance of the first act by the party in the process.The official notification is available at the BRPTO’s website and can be downloaded from the following link: official notification related to service order #1/2018 (original version in Portuguese).