The Brazilian Patent Office (BRPTO) published on August 21, 2018, Rule # 223/2018, which establishes the procedures related to the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) between BRPTO and the Danish Patent Office (DKPTO).
Said PPH will be in force on September 01, 2018 as a pilot program and will run until August 31, 2020, with a limit of 100 applications per year, therefore, totaling 200 applications at most. Each Applicant may participate with up to one patent application per monthly cycle, except in the last month of the program, when there will be no limit on the number of requirements per Applicant.
This PPH is limited to patent applications related to the technical fields of "mechanical engineering", "lighting", "heating", "weapons" and "blasting", according to the International Patent Classification (IPC) and the respective lower hierarchical levels thereof, as follows:
Technical field: Mechanical engineering; lighting; heating; weapons; blasting
IPC code: F# (any item under the F code is acceptable)
As can be seen, similar to the PPH programs established between the BRPTO and the European Patent Office (EPO) and the BRPTO and China's State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), drug-related applications (A61K IPC) are excluded.
To participate in this PPH, the patent application must:
- have been firstly filed with the DKPTO or BRPTO;
- have an application of its family allowed by DKPTO;
- have been published by the BRPTO; and
- have the examination already requested before the BRPTO (in case of divisional applications, the priority examination must also be requested for the parent and any other related divisional applications).
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.
