Beginning in December, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), a program that facilitates and speeds patent granting – now restricted to oil and gas, information technology; chemical macromolecules and polymers; metallurgy and materials; microorganisms and enzymes; agrochemicals; mechanics; biotechnology; packaging and measurement technology – will be available to all technology sectors. In 2018, the BPTO received 300 PPH applications. With the change, the expectation is to receive about 400 orders by 2020.
The new rules will allow Brazilians to use the result of the BPTO’s exam to speed up analysis in the signatory countries of the PPH agreements. On average, patents included in PPH are decided by the BPTO in eight months and may reach a single month. Outside PPH, the average time taken to pass an exam request, even in developed countries, can range from one to three years.
