Federal Court in Brazil invalidates chemical patent after nearly two decades of litigation

Our firm successfully represented a company operating in the offshore oil and gas sector in a lawsuit challenging the validity of a Brazilian patent relating to industrial chemical barrier coating processes.

In a decision issued by the Federal Court in Rio de Janeiro in early March 2026, the court declared the patent null and void for lack of inventive step, in line with the position adopted by the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI) during the judicial proceedings.

The dispute, initiated in 2007, involved complex technical discussions regarding whether the claimed technology represented a genuine inventive advance over the prior art. During the evidentiary phase, extensive technical and expert evidence was produced to assess the scope of the claimed solution and its relationship with existing technologies.

In its decision, the 9^thFederal Court concluded that the claimed features were already known in the prior art or resulted from obvious technical combinations that would have been readily apparent to a person skilled in the art. As a result, the court found that the patent failed to meet the inventive step requirement under the Brazilian Industrial Property Law.

The procedural history of the case was also particularly noteworthy. During the appellate phase, our team, led by partners Gabriel Leonardos, Rafael Lacaz, and Viviane Trojan, successfully obtained the annulment of the first-instance decision and of the initial expert report, leading the court to order a new technical examination. This step proved decisive, as the renewed expert analysis ultimately supported the declaration of patent invalidity.

The case also involved a parallel patent infringement action, which was subsequently dismissed following the invalidation of the patent.

Our team led the strategic coordination of both the legal and technical aspects of the case, including the appellate strategy that resulted in the reopening of the evidentiary phase and the reassessment of the technical issues by the court.

This decision — although still subject to appeal — is noteworthy in the Brazilian context. While the validity of granted patents may be challenged before the courts, successful patent invalidations remain relatively uncommon. Decisions of this nature illustrate the level of judicial scrutiny applied to granted patents and provide useful guidance on how Brazilian courts approach validity disputes.

Decisions like this highlight the importance of strategically assessing the validity of patents that may affect the freedom to operate of companies active in industrial and technological sectors.

Judicial challenges to patents can be an effective tool to mitigate risks, remove technological barriers, and reshape the competitive landscape in specific markets.

Our Patent Litigation team advises national and international companies in complex disputes involving patent validity and infringement in Brazil.

If your company is facing similar challenges or would like to discuss potential strategies, our team would be pleased to speak with you.

patentlitigation@kasznarleonardos.com