Obama will sign an agreement to accelerate the patent examination process in Brazil

Por: Portal IG

Brazil will sign with the U.S. during the visit of President Barack Obama on 19th and 20th an agreement to accelerate the analisys of patents in the country. The agreement will make available to the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI, acronym in portuguese) – the body responsible for examining patent applications in Brazil – results of tests and searches of patents already made in the USA. Thus, duplication of efforts will be reduced and, thus, the process will be faster. The Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC, acronym in Portuguese) expects from the deal the elimination of much of the current queue waiting for the patent, which lasts an average of eight years.

The main sector to be encouraged by this agreement will be the information technology (IT), s Julio Cesar Moreira, substitute director of patents of INPI. According to him, in this field the delay of four or five years to review the patent could mean the commercial failure of discovery, even if the patent is granted after that period. "It’s an industry of short-lived because the innovations become obsolete quickly."

The agreement is called Patent Prossecution Highway (PPH) and has been signed between the U.S. and 16 other countries, including China, United Kingdom and European Union. Brazil enters the PPH in the first year, only with the U.S. and in a restricted way. But over time, the agreement can be broadened and include other countries and technological fields.

The onset of the partnership between U.S. and Brazil is expected in July. Today, 30% of patent applications in INPI come from the U.S., says Moreira, and therefore may become more responsive by joining the PPH.

Reduce term of patent examination is a goal

The integration of PPH in Brazil is part of a larger project of the INPI to accelerate the period of patent examination in the country. Currently, they take on average eight years, between the application and the granting or denial. The goal of the organization is to reduce the average time for four years until 2014.

To reduce this period, measures have also been adopted as the replacement of internal procedures, hiring more technical and the creation of productivity targets for the examinators. "The idea is also to give the resident in Brazil a faster search and preliminary patent examination" says Moreno.

(Adapted from: http://migre.me/41P9G. Free translation by Pedro Villardi)