INPI wants to shorten the patent examination decision to two years until 2026
The acting president of the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property), Júlio César Moreira, presented this Tuesday, 18th, at breakfast promoted by the ABPI (Brazilian Association of Intellectual Property), the autarchy’s Strategic Plan for the next four years. At the meeting, he announced, among others, actions for the areas of communication, governance, logistics, technology and infrastructure that, according to him, will allow the INPI, by 2026, to decide in two years the examinations of patent applications, without contestation. With that, the Brazilian Institute would be raised to the same level as the major international patent offices. “Yes, we have the capacity for this and we will do it”, said Moreira.
The presentation, mediated by the president of ABPI, Gabriel Leonardos, was also attended by the deputy director of DIRPA (Patents Board), Alexandre Dantas Rodrigues, and the deputy director of Trademarks, Schmuell Lopes Cantanhede. In his presentation, Moreira reaffirmed the need for INPI management autonomy to hire examiners, buy equipment, invest in technology and other actions. In order to deal with these investments, he informed, the INPI is asking the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services to increase the autarchy’s budget for this year from the current R$ 52 million to R$ 72 million. “We want management autonomy and the possibility of programming for each year’s expenses”, he confirmed.
Moreira also announced the Institute’s intention to practice a pricing policy for the services provided, given that, he considered, the last readjustment took place in 2014. On this point, Leonardos stressed that ABPI has always defended the financial autonomy of the autarchy and that this is the inspiration of the Structuring Public Civil Action, filed by the entity with the 31st Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro, which aims to secure resources for the proper functioning of the INPI. “The ABPI is not opposed to the differentiated pricing policy, but it only makes sense if this money can be invested by the INPI in its activities. This must be dealt with jointly”, said Leonardos.
Although the INPI has quelled the patent backlog, which is now stabilized at acceptable levels, informed Moreira, the Institute is concerned about the formation of a backlog in the area of trademarks, aggravated by the 114% growth of these applications in the last four years and, at the same time , due to the decrease in the number of examiners. To alleviate the problem, the INPI Strategic Plan foresees, by 2026, the admission of 60 new trademark examiners every semester.
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