On December 29, 2020, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) published Ordinance No. 411, which establishes the new version of examination guidelines for patent applications involving computer implemented inventions. The publication of said Ordinance is the final result of the public consultation initiated on August 17, 2020.
Briefly, the BPTO affirmed the understanding that software implemented inventions are patentable in light of Law No. 9,279/1996 (Brazilian Industrial Property Law – BIPL), provided that they solve technical problems and reach technical results not exclusively related to the manner the source code has been written.
It is important to point out that the new guidelines present a more assertive wording and do not prevent patenting inventions related to the context of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI),nor inventions involving tools of machine learning and deep learning. Further, such guidelines may be updated soon, due to the development of new technologies.
Ordinance No. 411 may be obtained (in Portuguese) at:
For further information, please contact us at patents@murtagoyanes.com.br.