Alana Gandra Reporter Agência Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – A pilot cooperation agreement on patents will be signed this weekend during the visit to Brazil by the president of the United States, Barack Obama. A “pilot” agreement has limitations: this one will last 12 months or 500 analyses, whichever comes first.

Jorge Avila, the president of the Brazilian Institute of Industrial Property (“Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial - Inpi”) explains that if the experiment is successful it will become permanent. And that will allow Inpi to participate in the Patent Prosecution Highway (a kind of fast track) at the US Office of Patents and Trademarks. The advantage, says Avila, is that it will eliminate overlapping and duplicate work by patent offices in both countries.

“We will be creating an environment where patent registration will be more timely, benefiting Brazilians and Americans. Our patent offices, the Inpi and the USPTO, will be working together in examining patents,” said Avila, adding that there is a large backlog of American patents awaiting approval in Brazil, while, on the other hand, there are many Brazilians who would be happy to have their patents registered in the US. Avila goes on to explain that both patent offices will remain independent, that is, a patent approved in the US will not be approved automatically in Brazil.  “In practical terms, we will eliminate the need in one patent office to reexamine parts of patent applications that have been denied in the other patent office. That will reduce the workload in both offices by around 10% to 15%,” said Avila.

Patents take an average of 8.3 years to be approved in Brazil. The goal is to cut that time in half by 2015. But reducing the time is not the only objective, says Avila. “We want to set up similar agreements with Japan and the European Union. Besides reducing the time frame, we will be ensuring a higher level of quality and reliability in our work.”

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Obama vai assinar com o Brasil acordo na área de análise de patentes