The BPTO published on July 24, 2018, the Rule #222/2018 implementing the PPH Pilot program with the UKIPO, that intends to speed up the examination of pending Brazilian applications with an application from the same nature allowed by the UKIPO.
The Program will accept applications belonging to patent families whose earliest application has been filed at the BPTO or the UKIPO or, in case of a PCT application, the BPTO or UKIPO was the receiving office.
The program will accept application from the technical field of “Biotechnology”, ” Machinery and electrical devices, energy “, “Audiovisual Technology”, “Telecommunications”, “Digital Communication”, “Basic Communication Processes” , “Computer Technology”, “IT Methods for Management” and “Semiconductors”. The application must be classified under the IPC codes list to be accepted, with the exception of drug-related applications which are not allowed in this program .
The table below summarizes the International Patent Classifications accepted by this program:
| TECHNICAL AREA | IPC CODE |
| Biotechnology | (C07G, C07K, C12M, C12N, C12P, C12Q, C12R, C12S) except A61K |
| Machinery and electrical devices, energy | F21#, H01B, H01C, H01F, H01G, H01H, H01J, H01K, H01M, H01R, H01T, H02#, H05B, H05C, H05F, H99Z |
| Audiovisual Technology | G09F, G09G, G11B, H04N-003, H04N-005, H04N-009, H04N-013, H04N-015, H04N-017, H04R, H04S, H05K |
| Telecommunications | G08C, H01P, H01Q, H04B, H04H, H04J, H04K, H04M, H04N-001, H04N-007, H04N-011, H04Q |
| Digital Communication | H04L |
| Basic Communication Processes | H03# |
| Computer Technology | (G06# except G06Q), G11C, G10L |
| Information Technolgy Methods for Management | G06Q |
| Semiconductors | H01L |
To be accepted on the BPTO-UKIPO PPH Pilot Program, the application must:
i) Have been filed for more than 18 months or published by the WIPO (when applicable);
ii) Have the corresponding technical exam duly paid; (in case of divided patent applications, they must request priority procedure to all of them);
The participation of the application in the BPTO-UKIPO PPH Pilot Program shall be requested by any or all the applicants.
The BPTO-UKIPO PPH Pilot Program starts on August 01, 2018 and will receive applications up to July 31, 2020. Each applicant can only file one patent application per month, except during the last month of the project, when there will be no limit of number of applications for applicant. The project is limited to 100 applications accepted into the BPTO-UKIPO PPH program per year (limit of 200 accepted applications during the entire program).
Amongst other documents requested by Rule #222/2018, the applicant must submit with the application, documents proving that the application meets the requirements; a table including the correspondences between the BR application claims and the UK allowed claims and a copy of non-patentary prior art documents.
The BPTO will evaluate the applications according to its request date, and applications that do not meet the requirements will either be given the opportunity to correct any irregularity, case in which the BPTO will issue an office action which must be replied to within 60 days, or be denied participation in the PPH Pilot Program, case in which it will return to the regular line of examination.
The original Portuguese version of Rule #222/2018 is available here.