Following its Action Plan for 2018, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) continues to expand international cooperation through Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreements. On September 4, 2018, the BPTO initiated the second phase of the PPH agreement with the other 7 patent offices from PROSUL: Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
Through the PPH agreement, a patent application filed in Brazil (or, in the PCT scope, with Brazil as receiving office), and already considered patentable, can serve as a basis to expedite the examination of a corresponding patent application in any of the other 7 countries of PROSUL (and vice-versa). Each applicant may request the fast-track examination once per monthly cycle – excluding the last month of the project, when there will not be restriction regarding the amount of requests per applicant.
Requests for participating into Phase II of PPH BPTO-PROSUL pilot program will be accepted until June 30, 2019, and this program will be in force until all accepted applications reach a final decision.
The BPTO has been issuing final decisions in connection with applications related to PPH programs in approximately 180 days.
The official press statement is available (in Portuguese) at http://www.inpi.gov.br/noticias/inpi-inicia-nova-fase-do-projeto-piloto-pph-com-o-prosur.