BPTO publishes Ordinance/INPI/PR No. 48/2024, establishing Phase V of the PPH Pilot Project

BPTO publishes Ordinance/INPI/PR No. 48/2024, establishing Phase V of the PPH Pilot Project

On December 10, 2024, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) published Ordinance/INPI/PR No. 48, of November 29, 2024, establishing Phase V of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Project, starting on January 1, 2025. This new stage comes as a result of the BPTO’s adherence to the so-called “Global Patent Prosecution Highway” (GPPH), which took place on July 6, 2024, bringing changes to the priority processing of patent applications in Brazil. The new rule revokes the previous one, Ordinance/INPI/PRNo. 78/2022, bringing new features to the program that expand the possibilities of using the GPPH.

The GPPH is a plurilateral PPH Program that consolidates the three existing bilateral types of PPH: the traditional PPH, the PPH-PCT and the Mottainai PPH. This program is an important tool that implies prioritization of all acts in the administrative sphere of the BPTO and provides greater agility in the processing of patent applications in Brazil.

Firstly, among the main new features, the ordinance establishes that for this phase V of the PPH, the Partner Office can be “an IP participating office which, at the time of the PPH application, has a PPH cooperation agreement with the BPTO and/or is a participant in the GPPH”. Thus, the BPTO will now accept PPH applications for patent applications whose priority does not necessarily come from an IP Office that has a PPH cooperation agreement with the BPTO, it being sufficient for this office to be a participant in the GPPH.

A significant change concerns the annual limit for PPH requests.  According to the ordinance, “up to 3,200 applications for PPH participation may be received per annual cycle” and “up to 1,000 (one thousand) applications for participation in the Project may be made for patent processes classified in the same Section of the International Patent Classification (IPC), per annual cycle”.

Another positive change in this phase V of the PPH is the increase in the number of Partner Patent Offices to 35, including the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Europe, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Australia, among other jurisdictions.

The BPTO ordinance with all the rules for phase V of the PPH pilot project can be accessed via the following link: PORTARIA/INPI/PR Nº 48, DE 29 DE NOVEMBRO DE 2024

Note: For quick release, this English version is provided by automated translation without human review.