With the aim of optimizing patent prosecution procedures and enhancing Brazil's role in the Global Intellectual Property System, the BRPTO will join the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (Global PPH or GPPH) program on July 6. The program's Secretariat is managed by the Japan Patent Office (JPO), and BRPTO's membership to the GPPH was already outlined in the 2023-2025 Action Plan of the National Intellectual Property Strategy (ENPI).

The GPPH is a plurilateral cooperation program involving 27 participating IP offices. Its main goal is to accelerate the prosecution of patent applications by sharing examinations results from any participating office that indicate the existence of patentable subject matter, including results obtained under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Currently, the BRPTO has bilateral Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreements with 23 national or regional partner offices. By joining the GPPH, the number of partner offices will increase to 35.

The current PPH rules, established by BRPTO's Ordinance #78/2022 (mentioned in our Client Alert dated December 27, 2022), will remain valid until the publication of a new Ordinance. Examination results from the new partner offices may only be used after the new ordinance is published.

Other changes recently suggested by the BRPTO and expected for the new ordinance include: i) the use of any “positive” examination result from a partner country; ii) the removal of weekly limits on request per applicant; and iii) the possibility of including applications initiated in any country (even “non-partner” ones).

The official notice is available on the BRPTO’s website, and its original version in Portuguese can be accessed here.

For more information about the PPH and GPPH programs, please contact us at patents@lickslegal.com. We will gladly assist you.