As part of the 2023-2025 Action Plan of the National Intellectual Property Strategy, the Brazilian Patent Office (BRPTO) joined the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (GPPH) program on July 06, 2024. However, patent Applicants were still waiting for new Rules to be published to benefit from an extended version of the PPH.
These anticipated Rules were published on November 29, 2024, establishing a 5th phase for PPH in Brazil. Compared to the previous Rules, indeed many welcoming changes have been introduced:
- The total limit of 800 PPH requests per year has been increased to 3200;
- The limit of 250 PPH requests per year per IPC class has been increased to 1000;
- The limit of 100 PPH requests based on a favorable PCT examination result has been removed; and
- The limit of 1 PPH request per Applicant per week has been removed.
More importantly, PPH is available for Brazilian patent applications claiming priority to any foreign application. Only priority applications filed before a partner Patent Office (PTO) were considered in the former Rules.
Patent grant or application allowance from a partner PTO in a corresponding patent application is still a requirement. However, the list now encompasses not only those PTOs the BRPTO has individual PPH agreements with, but also those PTOs that are members of the GPPH, increasing the list to 35 participating PTOs.
The new PPH Rules will come into force on January 01, 2025, expiring on December 31, 2029, or when the limit of PPH request expires. Given the history of PPH requests filed at the BRPTO, it is quite possible that the limit expires still in 2025.
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