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The BRPTO and the DKPTO signed an agreement in order to expedite the prosecution of patent applications

The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BRPTO) just announced that an agreement was signed with the Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO) to expedite the prosecution of patent applications through a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Program, wherein the Applicant may request the fast-track examination of its application in BR or DK after being granted by the other. Brazil is the first country of South America to which the DKPTO signs a cooperation treaty.

The PPH BRPTO-DKPTO Pilot Program will include up to 100 patent applications per year in each country and will be valid for 2 years. The BRPTO will accept patent applications related to the field of mechanical engineering, lighting, heating, weapons and explosives, excluding any application in the pharmaceutical segment. The DKPTO will accept patent applications from any technological field.

In addition, the BRPTO will limit the participation of the same applicant to one application per month, except for the last month of the program.

Similar agreements have been signed between the BRPTO and the USPTO, EPO, JPO, SIPO, UKIPO and almost all the Patent Offices of the PROSUR participants, namely, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay and, additionally, Costa Rica.

We highlight that applying to the PPH program substantially reduce the time to receive a decision on patentability for patent applications in Brazil.

As soon as we have any news on this subject matter, we will provide more information.

Rafael Freire