Cooperative agreement between Brazil and EPO
The Brazilian Minister of Industry, External Trade and Services, Mr. Marcos Pereira, and the Vice-President of the European Patent Office (EPO), Mr. Raimund Lutz, have executed a Joint Statement to implement a cooperative pilot project between the Patent Offices.
The main goal of this project is to share the workload of patent examinations. The Brazilian Authorities and the EPO will define the scope of the project, which may follow the model of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), by defining economic areas that will benefit from this agreement and other relevant information, such as the number of patents and applicable deadlines.
Cooperative agreement between Brazil and EPO
The project aims to eliminate the current backlog of Brazilian patents waiting examination and to increase the quality and speed of patent examinations. It will enable the Brazilian Authorities to provide a better and faster service to the public, by assuring legal certainty, thus facilitating the exportation of Brazilian technologies.
During the official Ceremony, Mr. Marcos Pereira stated:
“This is an initiative aligned with our goal to continuously improve the economic environment in Brazil, by assuring security and predictability of rules regarding Industrial Property”.
The president of the Brazilian Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), Mr. Luiz Pimentel, has also attended the Ceremony. In Mr. Pimentel’s opinion, this is an important movement that will reinforce cooperation with outstanding Patent Offices, such as EPO, JPO and USPTO, thus reinforcing the relevancy of Industrial Property in Brazil.
Mr. Robson Braga de Andrade, president of the Brazilian Confederation of Industries, agrees with this initiative and states:
“Brazil needs to attract investments and increase the value of its industrial production. One of the possibilities to promote these improvements is to speed patent examinations. The execution of the agreement with the EPO is an important step to improve our relationship with the European Union”.
Mr. Raimund Lutz has point out that the EPO has an already existing tradition of cooperation with Brazil and the execution of this agreement will further promote such cooperation and reduce patent examination timeframe.
