The Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) is an international collaboration program between patent offices in several countries. In August 2023, Canada and Finland signed memorandum of understanding agreements with the BPTO to implement PPH pilot projects. This initiative seeks to establish favourable treatment of decisions obtained at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) and Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) in that applicants may request accelerated examination of patent applications through the PPH in Brazil.
Because the PPH in Brazil has an annual limit of applications (which has already been reached – see below), it will only be possible to request acceleration of examinations of patent applications via PPH based on favourable decisions of the CIPO and PRH from January 2024 onwards.
Brazil: PPH is a success and achieves significant results in the first half of 2023
The first semester closed with news from the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property – BPTO. The authority reported that the global limit of 800 Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) applications was reached in 2023, as stipulated in INPI/PR Ordinance No. 78/22. The result is a consequence of the work that the BPTO has been doing in recent years to combat the backlog.
The annual cycle ends on 31 December 2023 and, after this date, it will be possible to make new applications using the classification.
International Patent Classification
Every patent application is indexed according to the international patent classification. This classification specifies the subject or technology to which the patent application or patent refers.
1. Section A—Human Needs
2. Section B — processing operations; transport
3. Section C— chemistry; metallurgy
4. Section D — textiles; paper
5. Section E — fixed constructions
6. Section F— mechanical engineering; lighting; heating; weapons; explosives
7. Section G—physics
8. Section H — electricity
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