Patent registration in Brazil. Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. Brazil is one of the world’s most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world. It is a regional and middle power, and an emerging power. Brazil is classified as an upper-middle-income economy by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country, with the largest share of global wealth in South America. It is considered an advanced emerging economy, having the twelfth largest GDP in the world by nominal, and eighth by PPP measures. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of patent registration in Brazil.
Patent in Brazil
A patent in Brazil is temporary ownership of an invention. During the patent’s term, the patentee will have the right to exclude third-party actions related to the protected subject such as manufacture, commercialization, use, and others.
To protect an invention through patenting means to prevent its unauthorized exploitation by competitors who were not involved in nor bore the invention’s research and development costs.
To be patentable in this country, an invention must meet the requirements of novelty, inventiveness, and industrial applicability.
A creation must first be considered an invention. There is no statutory definition of ‘invention’ in the law of Brazil. However, the Brazilian Patent Statute does provide a list of what is not an invention.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Brazil
The necessary documents for patent registration in Brazil include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s and inventor’s names, addresses, citizenships, etc.;
- A description of the invention;
- A signed and stamped power of attorney by the applicant(s);
- A copy of the amendments (if any);
- Priority documents (if any).
- Other required documents.
Note:
The term for filing a patent application claiming conventional priority is 12 months from the date of priority and if reasonable reasons are provided, the applicant may extend this deadline by 60 days or 2 months.
The official language of the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property is Portuguese. Accordingly, all related documents to the patent registration process in Brazil must be filed in Portuguese.
The procedure for patent registration in Brazil
To obtain a patent in Brazil, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the Brazil IP Office – the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property.
After accepting, the patent application will undergo a formality examination process.
The substantive examination should be requested within 36 months from the Brazilian filing date.
If there are no errors detected in the application, the patent will be granted to the applicant.
The term for payment of the grant fee is 60 days from the issuance of the Notice of Allowance.
Validity period and annual maintenance of a patent in Brazil
A patent in Brazil will have a validity period of 20 years, counting from the filing date.
After the patent has been granted, the patentee needs to pay the annual maintenance fee to maintain the validity of the patent.
The annual maintenance fees are payable from the 3rd year of the filing date (second anniversary of the filing date).
The payment should be paid within the first 3 months of each year of patent validity.
If the patentee misses the deadline for the annual maintenance payment, he/she may submit the fees within 6 months after the expiration of the first three months with an additional charge.
You can see a list of Brazil IP firms here.