BPTO publishes its Action Plan for 2025

BPTO publishes its Action Plan for 2025

On December 30, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) published its Action Plan for 2025, which includes an agenda with 29 indicators and 48 strategic initiatives aimed at achieving the nine objectives set out in the 2023-2026 Strategic Plan. These initiatives, both institutional and sectoral, aim to boost innovation, income generation and job creation through industrial property (IP), as well as consolidating the BPTO as a world-class office. The challenges remain to ensure that revenue from services translates into sufficient resources for institutional modernization and to expand the capacity to provide services to society, especially regarding the registration and granting of trademarks, patents and industrial designs.

The nine strategic objectives are: (I) to improve the quality and speed of registrations and grants of IP rights; (II) to promote the strategic use of IP for innovation; (III) to consolidate Brazil’s leading role in the international system; (IV) to raise awareness and recognition of the value of the INPI to society; (V) to modernize services through digital transformation; (VI) to ensure sustainable funding for modernization and expansion of service capacity. (VII) ensuring an adequate workforce; (VIII) optimizing sustainable infrastructure; and (IX) improving governance and management. Each strategic objective is accompanied by Strategic Indicators, which must demonstrate its contribution to achieving the objectives, and Strategic Initiatives, divided into Strategic Actions and Strategic Projects, with the purpose of organizing decisions and deliveries.

With regard to improving the quality and speed of registrations and grants of IP rights (Objective I), 10 Strategic Indicators were defined, all related to the technical analysis time of grant and registration requests. As for the evolution of decision times in patent examination, the graphs presented in the document show a successive reduction in the analysis periods between 2021 and 2025, reflecting, according to the agency, the improvement in the provision of services to INPI users. For 2025, the target for the decision time for the technical examination of patent applications, starting from the filing date, is 3.9 years. If the count starts from the examination request, the target is reduced to 3 years.

On the other hand, the time indicator for priority examination of patents has increased since 2023, due to the growth in the number of applications treated as priority. As a result, the target set for priority patent examination requests remained at 10 months, a figure close to those for 2023 (10.1 months) and 2024 (10.2 months). In order to optimize patent examination processes, the implementation of the Business Process Model System (BPMS) is planned, a strategic project aimed at automating the patent examination flow.

Concerning trademarks, the indicators for examination decision times have increased steadily since 2021. For 2025, the target for the technical decision time for unopposed trademark applications is 21 months, higher than the 17.4 months projected for 2024. In cases with opposition, the estimate for 2025 is 33 months, while in 2024 it was 25.7 months. This increase is due to the significant growth in the number of trademark applications, which has outstripped the BPTO’s analysis capacity. Despite the addition of 40 new examiners in 2024, this number was insufficient to balance demand and production capacity. The use of artificial intelligence in the trademark examination process is one of the initiatives to increase productivity in this sector.

The implementation of the Industrial Property Automation System (IPAS) made it impossible to measure technical examination times for Industrial Designs in 2024, although there was a reduction between 2021 and 2023. Measurement will resume in February 2025. The report also presents graphs on decision times related to Geographical Indications, Technology Contracts, Computer Program Registrations and Integrated Circuit Topographies. In order to achieve objective I, the BPTO presents the following strategic actions: the development of studies and a proposal to modernize the Industrial Property Law (IPL); and the proposal to standardize art. 75 of the IPL, referring to patent applications whose subject matter is of interest to national defense.

The other strategic objectives also have well-defined indicators, projects and actions, especially objectives II and III. Objective II seeks to promote the culture and strategic use of IP for competitiveness, innovation and development in Brazil. Among the strategic initiatives that will be used to achieve this objective are: the IP Intelligence and Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy projects; the mapping and applicability of intellectual property and technology transfer requirements for inclusion in calls for proposals from the Financier of Studies and Projects (FINEP), as well as grants from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ) and entities linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI); encouraging the effective use of intellectual property and technology transfer requirements for the evaluation of postgraduate programs by CAPES; and the development of thematic programs to disseminate IP on a national scale.

In pursuit of objective III, which is to consolidate Brazil’s leading role in the international system, the BPTO intends, among other actions, to prepare for the internalization of the Treaties of Budapest and on Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge, as well as proposing a unified trademark form and collaborative patent examination with Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Finally, the 2025 Action Plan also incorporates cross-cutting agendas on gender, diversity, inclusion and environmental sustainability, integrating these perspectives into the BPTO’s planning. In addition, it presents the main budgetary information (income and expenditure), which will guarantee the financial support needed to implement the plan.

The 2025 Action Plan can be accessed via the link: BPTO 2025 ACTION PLAN

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