BRAZIL
MEASURES TO REDUCE PATENT APPLICATION BACKLOG
The Brazilian Patent Office issued Resolution No. 193 which allows the expedited examination request of Brazilian PCT patent applications.
Therefore, decided to hire new examiners in order to speed up the publication of national entry PCT applications which have increased the number of office actions and rejections.
According to Resolution No. 193, the “Office of Reference” is any ISA/IPEA International Office. The search report of patent applications coming from an Office of Reference will be prepared by INPI incorporating the search report of the Office of Reference and no supplementary searches will be requested. However, additional searches carried out by other Patent Offices or International Organizations may be filed.
INPI must still confirm if the patent applications must claim priority and if the priority must be from the same jurisdiction as the Office of Reference.
It is not possible to request an expedited examination in the following cases: (i) if third parties have filed oppositions, (ii) regarding patent applications that are already being examined by INPI, (iii) for patent applications for which a priority examination has already been granted, and (iv) regarding patent applications with pending appeal decisions.
