On May, the BPTO announced that the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot project with USPTO will begin its second phase, which will be initiated on May 10 until April 30, 2020. The measure was published in the BPTO Gazette nº 2470 on May 8.

The Patent Procurement Highway allows expedited examination of a patent application that has a positive patent right in another office/ member of the Institute, in addition to being associated. The pilot project came into force on February 1, 2018 in Brazil and the BTPO will accept applications for a period of two years, limited to 200 patent applications examined.

The innovation is that the information technology area is now included in the project, besides technologies already contemplated (oil, gas and petrochemical).

The current phase will also allow 50 patent applications to be included in the priority list of PPH from the preliminary opinion result obtained by the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

During the period of validity of the PPH, a total of 200 applications will be accepted in each country. The applicant may apply to join the PPH per month, except for the last 30 days of the program.

By PPH, Brazilians can use the result of the examination of the patent application in the BTPO to accelerate the analysis in the US and vice versa. Upon entering the program, INPI has issued a final decision in 180 days, on average.

Advogada Autora do Comentário: Barbara Pires

Fonte (link)

Manchete: “INPI publica nova fase do PPH com Estados Unidos”

“INPI publishes new phase of PPH with the United States”

“If you want to learn more about this topic, contact the author or the managing partner, Dr. Cesar Peduti Filho.”