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The Phase I of Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program signed by the BRPTO and the USPTO remains in force until May 10, 2018 (and was limited to the first 150 eligible applications).

The request for participating in Phase II of PPH Pilot Program shall be filed, by the Applicant(s) or duly authorized Attorney, from May 10, 2018 and until April 30, 2020, and differently from Phase I, Phase II is now limited to the first 200 eligible applications, among which up to 50 applications may take advantage of the results from the PCT prosecution for requesting the participation on the Pilot Program.

For participating in Phase II of PPH Pilot Program BRPTO-USPTO, the patent application of invention (utility model and industrial designs are excluded) must belong to a family of patents in which the first application (priority) was filed at the BRPTO or the USPTO or, in case of applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the BRPTO or the USPTO must have been designated as the Receiving Office.

Additionally, each Applicant may participate in Phase II of the PPH Pilot Program BRPTO-USPTO with one patent application per month, which means that only one request per Applicant may be filed per month, except in the last month of the Program (April 2020), wherein there will be no limit in the amount of requests to be filed per Applicant. In case there is more than one Applicant for a patent application, the limit of one patent application per month will be applicable to all the other patent applications that have at least one Applicant in common.

For being eligible for participating in Phase II of PPH Pilot Program BRPTO-USPTO, the application should be related to the fields of “information technology” or “oil, gas and petrochemical”, and be classified with any one of the symbols of the International Patent Classification – IPC, included in the list of ANNEX I. Just for the sake of information, in Phase I of PPH Pilot Program BRPTO-USPTO, only applications related to the oil, gas and petrochemical field were considered as eligible to participate in the Program.

Also, it is worth noting that Phase II of the Pilot Program now encompasses additional classification symbols of the International Patent Classification (IPC) for an application belonging to the oil, gas and petrochemical fields when compared to Phase I, as can be seen in the referred list.

The allowance of the fast track examination of a Brazilian patent application based on the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program does not characterize the automatic grant of the patent, since the BRPTO will carry out its examination pursuant to the Brazilian legislation and other procedures in force on the examination date, respecting the principle of independence of rights.

In the event you have a patent application that meets the provisions of this resolution and you are interested in participating in Phase II of this program, please instruct us accordingly as soon as possible specifying the official number thereof, having in view that there is a limitation in the number of applications.

We look forward hearing from you soon and remain at your disposal for any further clarification.

In case of any questions, please contact us at brj@clarkemodet.com.br.

ANNEX I

TECHNICAL FIELDS ACCEPTED IN THE PPH BRPTO-USPTO

Patent applications with main classification in the following symbols of the International Patent Classification – IPC, including their respective lower hierarchical levels of classification, may participate in the Pilot Project BRPTO-USPTO.

I. Information Technology

II. Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Field *

* In addition to the classification in the corresponding technical field, it is necessary the explicit indication of its relation with the oil, gas and petrochemical industries area.