Brazilian law requires that international know-how agreements must be previously registered before the BPTO – Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office, in order for Brazilian companies to be allowed to remit payments abroad.  Moreover, the BPTO of registration also enables Brazilian companies to treat the payment as an “operational expense” for corporate income tax purposes, among other effects.

According to the law, there is no doubt that know-how agreements are submitted to this kind of proceedings. However, the law is not clear concerning agreements for rendering technical assistance services, since, in these cases, the technology transfer may, or may not be present.

 

Historically, the BPTO has always required that such service agreements be registered, something that generates more costs and bureaucracy for companies, as well consumes the time needed to obtain the legal permission for making payments. It is also worth mentioning that the prior registration of these agreements before the BPTO is commonly required in order for foreign technicians to be able to obtain temporary work visas to come to Brazil, whenever the service must be rendered locally, in this country.

In an effort to mitigate such inconveniences, the BPTO had already created, several years ago, a list of services that could be paid without the need of a prior registration before the BPTO. The previous list was very limited and, because of that, was criticized.

 

Recently, on December 1st, 2015, the BPTO published the Resolution No. 156, extending the list of Service Agreements that are exempt of registration so as to include the following: 

·        Preventive maintenance services for equipment and/or machines of any kind;

·     Repair, fixing, adjustment, calibration, review, inspection, reform and recovery service for equipment and/or machines of any kind;

·        Assembling supervision services, assembling, dismantling, installation and start operation for equipment and/or machines.

As consequence, international service agreements related to the aforementioned activities become completely effective as of their execution by the parties, without the need of a prior approval by the BPTO, and payments that must be made by Brazilian companies became easier. The new updated list of services exempt of a prior approval by the BPTO is herewith attached.