Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office and Uruguay’s DNPI Launch Collaborative Patent Application Examination Project

On August 25, 2026, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI) announced the launch of a Collaborative Patent Application Examination Project in partnership with Uruguay’s National Directorate of Industrial Property and Software Registration (DNPI). The initiative is based on a bilateral cooperation Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two Offices in 2026.

The project initially focuses on patent applications in the fields of pharmaceuticals, including pharmaceutical chemicals and biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and natural products. Applications were selected based on three cumulative criteria: (i) falling within one of these technical fields; (ii) having been filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), with corresponding applications in the same patent family before both INPI and DNPI; and (iii) having a filing date before INPI in 2021 or 2022.

At this initial stage, eight Brazilian patent applications have been selected for the project. These applications will be removed from the regular examination queue and their substantive examination will be expedited. INPI has also clarified that no preliminary technical office action (under code 6.23) will be issued for purposes of processing the selected applications under the project.

Importantly, participation in the collaborative examination project is intended solely to expedite substantive examination. Once examination begins, each application will continue to follow INPI’s regular patent examination procedure and remain subject to the applicable Brazilian legal framework.

The  initiative follows the recent collaborative examination project launched by  INPI and Peru’s INDECOPI and reinforces a broader trend toward increased  technical cooperation among Latin American patent offices, particularly in  complex Life Sciences technologies.