Intellectual Property
The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) and the Chinese equivalent authority, the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China (SIPO), signed, on November 13th, 2017, an information-sharing agreement that consolidates a pilot cooperation project for patent examination, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) or Expedite Patent Examination.
Through the PPH, owners of patent applications will be able to take advantage of the examination result already carried out by one of the offices to request faster analysis by the other. The PPH allows these offices to benefit from the work previously done by the partner office, reducing the analysis’ timeframe.
The Brazil-China PPH will be launched in February, 2018. Initially, the BPTO will accept 200 patent applications, provided that they relate to information technology, packaging, measurement or chemistry. At SIPO, patent applications from any area may be prioritized.
The PPH between the BPTO and SIPO has the potential of increasing investments between Brazil and its main trading partner, China. Previously, Brazil had already entered into three other PPH agreements, with the United States, Japan and countries participating in the Consolidation of Cooperation Between South America Industrial Property Offices Project (Prosur).
In addition to the PPH, a cooperation agreement on intellectual property matters was signed, including, for example, the training of BPTO’s and SIPO’s employees and the sharing of information between the offices.
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