Fast-track Examination Requests, including PPH, will be temporarily suspended in Brazil for Telecommunication Cases

By means of Ordinance 17/2025, published on December 16, 2025, the BPTO has announced that fast-track examination routes, including the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), Green Patent Program and Technology Available in the Market, will be temporarily suspended for applications with main IPC H04 (Telecommunication).

The only fast-track options that will remain available for IPC H04 cases are those applicable to elderly applicants, applicants with disabilities or suffering from serious illness, and startup applicants. New Ordinance 17/2025 will be in force from January 1, 2026, and there is no projection for the resumption of priority requests for applications under IPC H04.

During 2025, the Brazilian PTO has been limiting the number of PPH requests for applications under main IPC H04, in view of their limited capacity to carry out the technical examination of these applications. Specifically, the BPTO accepted PPHs requests for such cases only in the second and fourth quarters of 2025, with a limit of 140 cases per quarter.

For cases with other main IPCs, including telecommunication-related applications with main IPC different from H04, the limit for PPH requests will be the same as 2025: 800 requests per quarter, totaling 3200 requests per year.

Up to this point in 2025, the BPTO has received 1,927 PPH requests. Of these, 1,786 requests have been evaluated, with an allowance rate of 92.5%. In addition, the average time between the PPH request and the issuance of an allowance decision was 124 days (4 months). Accordingly, despite the temporary suspension of PPH requests for applications under main IPC H04, the PPH program is expected to remain, in 2026, a strategic and highly relevant pathway for obtaining patent protection in Brazil in a fast and cost-effective manner.

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