FOSTERING INNOVATION
In addition, there is still a severe anti-patent policy within the government and the National Congress, which are constantly lobbied by local interests. Te national industry still fights against the counterfeit mentality that floods the local markets.
According to the INPI, the problems of time and backlog are not a consequence of
low
productivity (on average, there are fewer than three decisions a month per examiner), but the result of a shortage of human resources and infrastructure. Te situation is so severe that the INPI does not even make its issued patents available to the public. In Brazil, only the patent owner will receive a hard copy of its issued patent. No printed copies or electronic files are made available to the public, even for a fee.
Nevertheless, while the European Patent Office this number has almost doubled in the last few years. Te number of patent filings per year has
Despite the current situation, improvements have been made in the past few years, especially within the INPI.
Te most recent and visible development was the modernisation of the INPI’s headquarters. On May 10, 2012, the Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade inaugurated the office’s new address, and on the same date the minister announced that administrative measures will be will take place later this year. Among them, 100 will be patent and trademark examiners.
Another initiative of the INPI to reduce the backlog and also contribute to foster innovation is the Green Technology Highway, launched on April 17, 2012. This is a pilot programme for green patents, in which the period of examination of patent applications related to clean technologies will fall to less than two years. Eighteen applications have
already been enrolled in the Green
Technology Highway, which promises a response in two years.
According to the INPI’s programme manager, the office will consider only technologies that “reduce the impact of climate change, withdraw
“OF NEARLY 30,000 PATENT APPLICATIONS TO INPI PER YEAR, 6,000 ARE NATIONAL. THE INPI ESTIMATES THAT BETWEEN 2007 AND 2009, 10 PERCENT OF NATIONAL PATENT APPLICATIONS WERE GREEN.”
or emit less CO2 from the atmosphere”. Besides having to follow those precepts, the inventions should be related to waste management, alternative energy, agriculture, and transport or energy conservation.
not including applications made through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)—the majority of international patent applications. Te restriction aims to encourage Brazilian are national. Te INPI estimates that between 2007 and 2009, 10 percent of national patent applications were green. Most inventions were related to alternative energies such as biofuels, waste water treatment (industrial and domestic waste) and water reuse.
For the near future, the commissioner has announced that the INPI’s budget will be reviewed and funds will be released in order to allow the entity to maintain a portfolio of strategic projects to work on the backlog forecast for this year. Te current goal is having a patent granted within four years (average time).
filed in Brazil will have
the same search
report and preliminary examination report provided by the PCT to international patent applications. Tis will allow national patent owners better to predict the patentability of their inventions, allowing for more flexibility and planning. Also from this date on, utility models will have preferential treatment in the examination line. New guidelines for examining them are currently being discussed relate to inventions directed to new shapes or arrangements and involve an inventive act that
40 Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review 2012
results in functional improvement in its use or its manufacturing, corresponding to 20 percent Brazilian nationals.
From July, online patent filings will be possible. Today, the INPI only accepts paper for patent applications, which contributes to the backlog. With
is computerised and, therefore, faster. Te e-Patents system, which will allow patenting via the Internet, is being developed based on the European model.
Tese and other recent advancements in the IP area have already been noted by the international community. A recent report prepared by the American Chamber of Commerce reveals an increase of 10 percent in positive evaluations of the INPI by industry in the last year, although percent of the interviewed users. Further, aſter the list of priority countries under observation with regard to violations of IP, noting that advances have been made.
However, many changes remain to be done. While the INPI seeks modernisation, the Brazilian National Congress has two pending law proposals seeking to exclude from patentable subject matter second use of known compounds and polymorphs. Tis can be seen as a regression, especially taking into consideration that, in developed countries, a prevailing tendency seems to exist in the patent patent-eligible subject matter.
Also important is the attack on the constitutionality of
the remaining pipeline
patents, which is currently pending before the unconstitutionality of
the pipeline
patent system would affect approximately pipeline applications, many of them covering blockbuster drugs. This would have a great impact on the research-based pharmaceutical industry and also create lots of uncertainty in the international community regarding Brazil’s IP system as a whole.
Another important point is the ambiguity regarding the term of protection of data package
www.worldipreview.com
electronic filing, the whole process
laws to enlarge
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64