On December 13, 2023, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) published in its official Gazette a technical note providing greater detail concerning the proposal that culminated in the modification of procedures in the distribution of patent applications for the conduction of the technical examination.
According to the BPTO’s statement of December 12, and the recently published Technical Note No. 23/2023, said distribution, as well as the conduction of the technical examination of patent applications, will now be ordered by the date of the request for examination, instead of being ordered by the application filing date – as currently done.
Resulting from a detailed technical study and a comparative analysis with International practices, as well as statements obtained from the Public Acceptance of Subsidies No. 1, which took place between September and November of this year, the technical note was based on the implementation of a model that favors predictability and transparency in the patent examination process, aiming at reducing the processing and decision timeframe for patent applications to two years (as foreseen in the BPTO’s Strategic Planning 2023 – 2026), in addition to aligning practices of the PTO with those already adopted by other International Patent Offices.
This change is grounded on a series of understandings, among which: a) it will encourage applicants to request examination of its applications to advance in the queue; b) offer applicants the possibility of speeding up or slowing down the examination process according to their needs; and c) allow interested parties to expedite the examination of third parties’ applications if necessary, or to choose not to do so.
The BPTO estimates that this new procedure will begin on January 1st, 2024.
For more information, please contact us at patents@murtagoyanes.com.br