Alana Gandra Reporter Agência Brasil

Rio de Janeiro – The Brazilian government has decided that further analysis of the patent agreement between the country’s Industrial Property Institute (“Inpi”) and the American patent office (USPTO), is necessary. As a result an agreement will not be signed this weekend during the visit to Brazil by US president, Barack Obama.

The agreement would have allowed the Inpi to enroll in the US program known as the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH), a kind of fast track for patent approval or denial, that eliminates duplication of work and reduces backlogs in the countries where it is operational.

However, the Brazilian organization, Brazilian Network for People Integration’s Work Group on Intellectual Property (“GTPI/Rebrip”) was strongly opposed to the agreement saying it was detrimental to Brazil. A lawyer for the organization, Renata Reis, claims the quality of patent examinations would fall under the terms of the agreement.

“GTPI/Rebrip has serious doubts regarding the advantages that Inpi says would occur,” said Reis, pointing out that 30% of all patent requests in Brazil originate in the US, while the opposite is not true (Brazil submits few patents to the USPTO for approval).

 “What will really happen is Brazil will be swamped with patent requests under the PPH, while the situation in the US will be completely different. There is also the tendency at Inpi to follow the lead of the USPTO where American patent requests move to the front of the line and those from other countries are subject to long delays. The more foreign patents we accept, the more we are hostage to multinational corporations,” said Reis.

Jorge Avila, the Inpi president, declared that there was no reason for the agreement to result in less exam quality and denied that it would privilege the US. He pointed out that the number of patent requests was rising worldwide and cited the example of Prosur, an organization set up by nine South American nations as a joint patent office in order to speed the exam process up. He also revealed that Brazil has similar proposals from Mexico, Chile and Spain.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English - content modified

Link - Governo adia assinatura de acordo de patentes com EUA