(BRPTO's IP gazette of September 5th, 2017)
The BRPTO published today, September 5th, 2017, Normative Instruction #74/2017 which establishes that the registration of computer programs will be requested exclusively by means of the electronic form e-RPC.
According to article 2, ¶1 of Normative Instruction
#74/2017, the applicant will have the entire responsibility for
guarding the confidential information and for its transformation in
hash summary. The identification of the hash function or algorithm
used to encrypt the confidential information and the text of the
hash summary resulting from the cited algorithm adopted as
authentication element shall be submitted to the BRPTO via e-RPC
form. The information previously submitted in paper format are
still required and includes: the applicant, author and attorney
data, power of attorney, proof of payment of the o icial fee, among
others.
Additionally, a Statement of Truth document is required to fulfill
the filing requirements. This document must be digitally signed by
the applicant or the corresponding attorney and attached in PDF
format to the form e-RPC. The Statement of Truth can be signed by a
single applicant, in case there are co-applicants. The Power of
Attorney must be digitally signed by the applicant or its legal
representative, if required.
All the signatures must be digitally certified by the
ICP-Brasil, except for applicants that do not reside in Brazil,
which may present a digital certificate not issued by the
ICP-Brasil. The digital certification process must be in accordance
to the type of person the applicant is, i.e. natural or legal
person.
The e-RPC system will validate the electronic form by checking if
all the requirements have been met. If some irregularity is
detected, the petition will not be recognized and processed by the
BRPTO.
Computer Program Registrations requested prior to this Normative
Instruction by physical means, which are still pending, but in a
regular situation, will have their corresponding registration
certificate issued. If the application is not in a regular
situation, the Brazilian PTO will issue an O ice Action informing
the reason the application has not been recognized.
Normative Instruction #74/2017 shall be e ective as of September
12, 2017.
The original Portuguese version of Normative Instruction #74/2017 is available here. The English version will be available soon.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.