INPI and INDECOPI Launch Collaborative Patent Examination Project Focusing on Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

On August 11, 2026, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI) announced the launch of the Collaborative Patent Application Examination Project, developed in partnership with Peru’s National Institute for the Defense of Competition and Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI).

The initiative stems from the Memorandum of Understanding on Bilateral Cooperation entered into by the two Offices in 2025 and represents a further step towards strengthening cooperation among intellectual property offices in Latin America.

A particularly relevant aspect of the initiative is its technological scope. According to INPI’s announcement, the project covers patent applications in the technical fields of pharmaceuticals, including pharmaceutical chemicals and biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and natural products.

At this initial stage, nine patent applications were selected based on three cumulative criteria: (i) they fall within the technical fields covered by the project; (ii) they were filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), with corresponding applications in the patent families before both Offices; and (Iii) they entered the national phase between October 1, 2022 and July 31, 2023.

The selected applications will be removed from the regular examination queue and their substantive examination will be expedited. INPI has clarified, however, that inclusion in the project is strictly intended to expedite examination. Once the procedure has begun, each application will follow INPI’s usual substantive examination process.

Why is the selection of pharmaceuticals and biotechnology relevant?

The selection of these fields for the project deserves particular attention.

Pharmaceutical and, in particular, biotechnology inventions are among the most complex subject matters dealt with by the patent system. Issues concerning patent-eligible subject matter, the distinction between inventions and discoveries, biological materials found in nature, biological sequences, microorganisms, products derived from biological processes, and certain therapeutic uses may be treated differently across jurisdictions.

Against this background, Brazil and Peru provide an interesting starting point for a collaborative examination initiative.

A comparative study on standards and criteria for the patentability of biotechnology inventions, coordinated by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC), INPI and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), examined the treatment afforded to biotechnology across different jurisdictions. The study identified Peru among the countries displaying, in qualitative terms, a relevant degree of similarity with Brazil as regards the scope of biotechnology subject matter eligible for patent protection.

This similarity does not, of course, mean that the two systems are equivalent. Brazilian examination remains subject to Brazilian IP Law No. 9,279/1996 and INPI’s Examination Guidelines, while Peru applies, among other rules, Andean Community Decision 486. Accordingly, differences in the applicable legal framework and examination practice remain and may lead to different outcomes.

This is precisely what makes the project particularly interesting. The use of corresponding applications belonging to the same patent family allows the two Offices to work on substantially related inventions while comparing prior-art searches and technical assessments conducted within legal frameworks that have points of convergence but are not identical.

The most immediate effect for the applicants of the nine selected applications is clear: expedited substantive examination.

The strategic potential of the initiative, however, is broader. Projects of this nature may facilitate the sharing of expertise among examiners, reduce duplication of search and examination efforts, and contribute to greater consistency and predictability in the examination of patent families filed in different countries in the region.

For the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, it will be particularly important to monitor whether the initiative leads, over time, to greater alignment of examination practices on issues such as patent-eligible subject matter, novelty, inventive step and sufficiency of disclosure.

The selection of pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology and natural products as the initial technical fields covered by the project makes this initiative particularly relevant to the Life Sciences sector. In addition to the high degree of technical complexity involved in examining patent applications in these fields, which have historically been associated with significant challenges in terms of examination backlogs and processing times, the expedited examination provided under the project may contribute to a more timely prosecution of the selected applications. The results of this first group may also provide important insights into the practical scope of the cooperation and the potential for expanding the model to other patent families and technological fields.

[1] Estudo comparativo sobre normas e critérios de patenteabilidade de invenções biotecnológicas. Sumário executivo