Following its Action Plan for 2018, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) continues expanding international cooperation through Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreements. Now, the BPTO will initiate the second phase of the PPH agreement with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which will last until April 30, 2020.
Through the PPH agreement, a patent application already granted in Brazil may have its examination fast-tracked in the United States (and vice-versa). In this new phase, the PPH between the BPTO and the USPTO will admit up to 200 patent applications in each country, and will allow that 50 applications be included in the PPH’s priority queue based on the result of preliminary opinion obtained by the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). In this phase, the PPH will admit applications related to IT, in addition to those fields already contemplated by the previous phase (oil, gas and petrochemical).
The BPTO has been issuing final decisions in connection with applications related to the PPH program in approximately 180 days.
The full press statement is available (in Portuguese) at http://www.inpi.gov.br/noticias/inpi-publica-nova-fase-do-pph-com-estados-unidos.