Brazil’s new Patent Office President came into office at a challenging yet critical time when the country’s patent application backlog was one of the largest in the world; however, new reforms may help bring important changes for Brazilian patents filing system. In the meantime, here are 5 important facts concerning the state of the current Brazilian Patent Filing System.
Average Handling Time is Decreasing
Efforts to decrease the time period for the application approval process have resulted in bringing time frames closer to those of developed economies, making Brazil more favorable for filing both domestic and foreign patents. One important action during the last few years is the advancement in the country’s Information Technology (IT) systems. The goal is to decrease the average examination time from ten to four years by 2015. But several issues remain due to past inadequacies in the system. There are exceptions for certain situations where accelerated patent examination is allowed and may facilitate the application process. Such cases, however, require careful planning and submission of a special request to the patent office.
Brazilian Patents | Brazil Has a New Patent Office President
With Brazil’s newly appointed president, Luiz Otavio Pimentel, in charge of the country’s Patent and Trademark Office, there are signs of progress toward patent reform. In July of this year, Mr. Pimentel became President of Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property, Ministry of Development and Foreign Trade, or Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Intelectual (INPI), which is the equivalent of the USPTO. Upon his initiation into office, many critical issues in the application process needed immediate attention. He has already implemented some changes including a more practical, lower cost system for processing the applications for Brazilian patents. Some barriers, however, such as the backlog, are especially challenging and may take time to overcome.
Brazilian Patents | Brazil Has a Large Patent Backlog
Despite the electronic filing system adopted in 2013, Brazil’s Patent Office has one of the largest backlog’s per examiner in the world. Due to this excessive backlog, waiting times can be over ten years, especially in some fields such as technology and telecommunication. Measures have been implemented to improve this situation, however, there is an expected lag period. Brazil’s recent economic recession resulted in a hiring freeze which restricted the number of examiners – those already employed were unable to meet the demands on the Patent Office. All examiners are required to meet specific qualifications, this has further limited the number available to tackle the backlog. One strategy to overcome this problem, implemented by the new president of the Patent Office, has been to use non-examiners for some tasks.
Brazilian Patents | Pharmaceutical Patents Dominate
Half of all the requests for Brazilian patents come from the chemical/pharmaceutical industry, although a large percent (reportedly up to 60%) are for second-use patent protection. Pharmaceutical patents must pass through a separate application process to gain approval from the National Sanitary Vigilance Agency (ANVISA), the equivalent of the U.S. FDA in Brazil. One of the most controversial issues is the role of ANVISA during the “prior approval/consent analysis” of patent applications claiming pharmaceutical inventions. Article 229-C of Brazil’s Patent Statute provides that ANVISA shall have the right to provide approval of patent applications claiming pharmaceutical inventions (often referred to as “prior approval” or “prior consent”). More recently, the courts in Brazil have issued decisions that Article 229-C did not grant ANVISA the power to examine patent applications for compliance with the patentability requirements, but rather that ANVISA was limited solely to determining whether or not a patent application was against public health.
The Official Language for Brazilian Patent Law is Portuguese
The official language of Brazilian patent prosecution is Portuguese. The application may be filed in any other foreign language, however, the term for submission of the Portuguese translation is 30 days from receipt of the invitation from the INPI.
Did You Know?
- Portuguese is the 6th most spoken language with official status in 10 countries.
- It is a member of the Romance family of languages.
- Portuguese is not one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations.
- There is significant mutual intelligibility between (written) Portuguese and Spanish.
- There are differences between the Portuguese spoken in Portugal and that of Brazil.
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