Brazil joins the Global Patent Prosecution Highway Program (GPPH)

In order to accelerate the prosecution of patent applications by sharing examinations results

Still pending publication of new specific regulations, the BR Patent Office has recently joined the Global Patent Prosecution Highway Program (Global PPH) in order to accelerate the prosecution of patent applications by sharing examinations results from any participating patent office of the GPPH, including results obtained under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The BR Patent Office already has bilateral Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreements with 23 patent offices, being now increased the number of collaborating patent offices to 35.

In the meantime, the BR Patent Office has just announced that the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program has reached the established limit of 800 requests for the present year. Accordingly, no new PPH requests will be accepted until the PPH program is reinstated on January 1, 2025.

Also in an attempt to continue reducing the backlog of patents examination currently existing at the BR Patent Office, it has been authorized the recruitment of 120 new officers by the end of this year, many of them as new patent examiners.

Update regarding retroactive application of guidelines for administrative appeals

As expected, the Brazilian Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro has just recognized the unconstitutionality of the retroactive application of BR Patent Office guidelines issued in December 2023 regarding administrative appeals against rejection of patent applications.

As you may recall, the BR Patent Office published new restrictive rules regarding acceptance of amendments at the appeal stage, which are now being accepted by the examiners under certain conditions only. Even though originally intended to be applied not only for appeals submitted after implementation of the new guidelines but also to appeals previously submitted still pending resolution, the Federal Court has now considered that said restrictions as contemplated under the new guidelines should not be applied to appeals submitted prior to the date of implementation of same, namely, April 2, 2024.

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