(Federal Register of August 23 rd , 2017)The BRPTO published on its official website a notification informing the extension of the deadline to submit comments on the proposal aiming at reducing the backlog via simplified allowance procedures for pending patent applications. According to this notification, interested parties may now submit their comments until August 31 st , 2017.As informed in our client alert on August 1 st (available here), this proposal came as an effort of the Ministry for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), which understands the importance of obtaining the patent right within an acceptable time frame.It all indicates that the proposed amendments to the Brazilian Patent Statute will be soon enacted by the President of Brazil, Mr. Michel Temer. In view of that, all applicants that wish to take advantage of the simplified procedures for the allowance of their pending patent applications, must pay attention to the requirements established by the amendments proposal, to the deadlines stated thereon and to the status of all applications they wish to make eligible to the simplified allowance procedure.Our suggestions for applicants that wish to participate on the simplified procedure:
- Since the proposal draft establishes that only applications filed before the publication date of the amendment to the Brazilian Patent Statute will be accepted into the simplified allowance procedure, we recommend filing all applications and PCT National Phase to make them eligible for the simplified allowance procedure as soon as possible.
- The applicant must file a request for anticipated publication if the application has not been published by the BRPTO yet, even if the 18-month deadline for the publication has already expired.
- The applicant must request for examination as urgently as possible and not wait for the enactment of such amendments to the Patent Statute.
- The applicant must pay all overdue annuity fees.
Our suggestions for applicants that wish to opt-out of the simplified procedure it to identify all applications they do not wish to participate in such procedure right now, with time to prepare an exclusion request to be filed it as soon as the amendments to the Patent Statute is enacted.We would like to highlight that the proposal already establishes that (i) divisional applications; (ii) certificate of addition applications; (iii) applications related to pharmaceutical products and processes; (iv) applications already under substantive examination, with office actions published; and (v) applications for which third-party submissions have been filed shall not benefit from the simplified procedures.To make the most of the amendments to the Patent Statute, we will assist our clients in the assessment of the eligibility requirements upon request. For any questions about the simplified allowance procedures or if you to request exclusion from it, please contact us at fastgrant@lickslegal.com.The documents published together with the public comments invitation notice are available, in English, at the following links:
- Notice of public comments invitation;
- Proposal reasonings;
- Proposed normative;
- Statistic summary of the situation of patent applications at the BRPTO (will be available soon); and
- Suggestion form.