As of 5 May 2009, in result of an initiative taken by the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), it has been possible to conduct an online search of the Brazilian PTO's database in order to determine the expiry dates of Brazilian patents. The website carries a proviso that the results of users' searches should not be taken as official: confirmation of status of any case should be requested via a status Certificate to the Patent Directorate of the Brazilian PTO.
It is recommended that, regarding pharma patents, users should not rely entirely on the information obtained from the new model search since patents resulting from "black-box" applications and "pipeline" applications will not be entitled to the regular 20-year patent term which is counted from the filing date of the application. Moreover, given the huge backlog at the PTO's pharma Division, most pharma cases, on grant, will have a legal term of 10 years counted from the date of issue to compensate an overdue prosecution period (10 years) by the Brazilian PTO.
Source: circular from Rana Gosain, Daniel Advogados
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