On December 28, 2021, the BRPTO published, by means of the Official Gazette nº 2660, the Ordinance #56/2021, which establishes the procedures for the submission of Sequence Listings in patent applications in Brazil. The new Ordinance revokes the previous Ordinance #405/2020 and enters into force on January 3, 2022.

According to Ordinance #56/2021, the Sequence Listing must be submitted by the applicant upon filing the patent application. If such Sequence Listing is not submitted upon filing, it can be voluntarily presented by the applicant independently of any notification up to the request for examination, or in response to a requirement formulated by the BRPTO. The format of the Sequence Listing must follow the WIPO ST.25 Standard format (TXT format) or, alternatively and voluntarily, follow the new ST.26 Standard (XML format) until June 30, 2022.

The new ST.26 Standard format creation, verification and editing tool is established by the WIPO Sequence Tool and is available here.

Ordinance #56/2021 also reiterates the main rules to be considered when preparing the Sequence Listing of a patent application, which were maintained in accordance with the previous Ordinance.

In this connection, it is reiterated that all linear sequences of 4 (four) or more continuous L-amino acids of a peptide or protein and all linear sequences that have 10 (ten) or more continuous nucleotides must be included in the Sequence Listing, even those that have not been claimed, such as, for example, PCR probes, as long as they fulfill said requirements.

In addition, it is worth noting that branched sequences, sequences with less than 10 (ten) nucleotides, sequences with less than 4 (four) L-amino acids and amino acid sequences that contain at least one D-amino acid, as well as sequences comprising nucleotides or amino acids different from those listed in Tables 1, 2, 3 and 4, attached to Ordinance #56/2021, must be included in the specification of the patent application, and cannot be included in the Sequence Listing.

If you are interested in more information on the matter, our Life Sciences team is at your disposal. Please contact the professional who usually assists you, or write to mail@kasznarleonardos.com.