The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) published, on October 22, 2019, a new Resolution merging the rules and procedures related to requirements for participating in the PPH (Patent Prosecution Highway) Programs, which are already in force. This new Resolution will be valid as from December 1, 2019.
The PPH Program allows an Applicant to request a fast-track examination of a Brazilian patent application that either claims priority of an application (according to the Paris Convention) or is the national phase of a PCT application, originated on a foreign Patent Office to which the BPTO established a cooperation agreement and which considered that the foreign application or national phase contains patentable subject-matter. Currently, the BPTO has cooperation agreements with China, Denmark, United States, Europe, Japan, United Kingdom and PROSUR (which comprises Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay).
This new Resolution, when in force, will revoke all previous Resolutions related to PPH programs. However, it must be noted that the rules and procedures established in this new resolution are still aligned with those set by the resolutions to be revoked.
Between the few distinctions, this new Resolution establishes that BPTO will only receive 400 PPH requests per year, wherein each Applicant may file one single request per month.
Moreover, although not explicitly in this new resolution, the BPTO ascertains in its recent communications that patent applications of any technical field and having any IPC classification will be eligible to benefit from the PPH Program from now on.
It is believed that, beyond standardizing the rules and procedures, said resolution will provide more dynamism to the PPH Programs, once it would no longer be necessary to issue a new resolution to each time the BPTO signs a new cooperation agreement.
Official fees for a PPH request are about US$ 445.00 and final decisions are currently occurring in about 8 months. PPH programs in Brazil are being very effective ways for speeding up patent prosecution proceedings.
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