PPH in Brazil: case limit for 2024 has been reached

The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) has just published a notification informing that the annual limit of 800 Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) requests to be accepted for 2024 has reached its limit, thus additional PPH requests will no longer be accepted.

In 2024, the average examination time was of 3.5 months from the PPH request day, and the allowance rate of applications accepted under PPH was 97.22%. The technical fields with the highest number of requests were Digital Communication, Audiovisual Technology, Biotechnology and Technology Applied to Medicine, respectively.

We are proud to announce that Kasznar Leonardos has filed 146 PPH requests in 2024, which corresponds to 18.25% of PPHs requested in Brazil. This also represents an increase of 26.95% in our number of requests compared to last year. Such numbers corroborate our efforts to proactively pursue our clients interests in Brazil.

Global PPH in the future

Regarding the next steps of the PPH procedure in Brazil, the BPTO has recently announced that Brazil will take part in the Global Patent Prosecution Highway program (Global PPH or GPPH), an initiative by the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) to encourage multilateral cooperation between patent offices from different countries.

With this adherence to GPPH, the number of partner offices will increase from 23 to 35, significantly broadening the possibilities for accelerating exams in Brazil through the PPH route.

It is possible to verify the countries that participate in the GPPH using this link. Brazil also has individual PPH cooperation with the countries on this list.

Finally, the BPTO also informed that a new ordinance shall be published and that more details about the formal procedures for accepting applications via GPPH should be released soon.

If you are interested in obtaining more details or have specific questions, do not hesitate to contact us at mail@kasznarleonardos.com.