Brazil launches Phase 3 of its Green Patent Programme

Last month, on 29 April, just 14 months after Patricia Covarrubia posted this piece on the grant of Brazil's first green patent, the Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI) published Resolution 131. This expands the priority examination of green patent applications to its third phase. In this new phase of the programme -- which expires on 16 April 2015 or when the figure of 500 new requests has been reacehd -- patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) are also being taken into account.

Patent applications that qualify for this programme will be checked by an INPI technical board.  Only applications relating to certain types of technology will be considered, eg alternative energy, transport, energy conservation, waste management and agriculture (a full list of qualifying technologies can be read here).

There's more to it than merely falling within a category of technology that qualifies for fast-tracking, of course. Thus (i) the patent or utility model application must have up to 15 claims of which (for patent applications) up to three may be independent claims and (ii) there must be a Brazilian application, a PCT application in the Brazilian national phase or a Brazilian application filed under the Paris Convention [is there any other route to patent protection in Brazil apart from these?].

The Green Patent Programme, in force since 2012, has now attracted 523 requests, of which only 11 have been rejected.So far, 19 patents have been granted under the programme, each taking an average examination time of 385 days.

Source: Di Blasi Parente & Associados email circular here (in English and Portuguese)