The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BRPTO) has issued a new set of guidelines to clarify its recent regulations on amending patent claims during the appellate phase and help patent applicants adapt to the new policy. Last month, we published an article regarding the decision rendered by the President of the BRPTO on 12 December…

On February 20, 2024, a Brazilian Congressman introduced a bill to amend the national IP Statute (Law #9,279/96) and regulate the ownership of inventions generated by artificial intelligence systems. Bill #303/2024 proposes the addition of a paragraph to Article 6 of the IP Statute, which regulates ownership of inventions, with the following wording: “in the…

Divisional filings are one of the most controversial topics in patent prosecution in Brazil. The Patent Office (BRPTO) severely limits the ability of patent applicants to file divisionals. For instance, the BRPTO rejects divisionals filed after receiving a notice of allowance, after receiving a denial or during the appeal stage. Article 26 of the Brazilian…

On December 12, 2023, the President of the BRPTO gave a normative and binding character to four Opinions of the Specialized Federal Attorney’s Office, imposing restrictions on the actions available to applicants when appealing first instance decisions. Particularly, the Opinion limits the provisions of the Brazilian Patent Statute which guarantee the “full devolutive effect”. Similarly…

On December 6, the Board of Directors (DICOL) of the Brazilian Food & Drug Agency (ANVISA) passed new regulations accepting an exemption to allow generics and branded generics (also called “similar” drugs) to remove patented uses from their labels – i.e., skinny labeling. The change will come into effect 60 days after the amended text…

On October 24, 2023, the Brazilian government released an Action Plan aiming at fostering the National Intellectual Property (IP) Strategy. The plan was prepared by the Interministry IP Group ( a group created in 2019 to coordinate the federal government activities in the field of intellectual property. Thirteen Ministries form part of GIPI, and the…

The EPO and BRPTO are adopting the WIPO Standard ST.26 for the submission of sequence listings in national and international applications filed on or after July 1st, 2022. WIPO Standard ST.26 establishes new rules for the presentation of biological sequences in extensible markup language (XML). This format has many advantages over the former ST.25 (TXT)…

Brazil’s president published, on September 27, Decree No. 11,715/2023 which institutes the “National Strategy for the Development of the Economic-Industrial Health Complex”. This decree aims at directing public and private investments towards the health and innovation sectors to reduce the Public Health System’s (SUS) vulnerability and increase access to medicines. It aims to do this…

The BRPTO published on September 14 an invitation for interested parties to comment on a proposal to review the provisions of the Brazilian IP Statute regarding two relevant timeframes for patent owners filing applications in Brazil. The first concerns the term for requesting examination (currently 36 months from filing, per Section 33), and the second…

Judges deciding patent matters in Brazil usually have none to limited technical background. In view of the complexity of patent cases, it is often that we see judges appointing a court examiner, as defined by law: “the judge will be assisted by a court expert whenever the proof of the fact depends on technical or…