Brazil publishes new rules for procedures and examination guidelines for patent applications
On September 3, 2024, the BPTO published two new rules updating the procedures regarding the contents of patent applications and the examination guidelines.
On September 3, 2024, the BPTO published two new rules updating the procedures regarding the contents of patent applications and the examination guidelines.
Ordinance 14/2024 revokes the previous Normative Instructions 30 and 31, both from 2013. This rule regulates the presentation and filing of patent applications and certificates of addition, regarding formality and content, as well as aspects related to priority, grace period, divisional applications and submission of amendments.
The new Ordinance specifies that the disclosures accepted for the grace period are only non-patent documents. In addition, it determines that the amendments must be submitted with a comparison copy specifically indicating the location of the changes in the text.
However, the main changes concern divisional applications, since it clarifies the deadline for the voluntary request for the divisional. Therefore, it may only be carried out up until the date of the end of the examination of the original application in the first instance, which is the date of publication of the decision of granting, denying or definitive shelving.
Furthermore, the request must be accompanied by a comparison copy indicating, specifically, the changes in the claims of the divided application in relation to the claims presented in the original application, with strikethrough marking in the removed sections, and underlining marking in the included or replaced sections.
Whenever there is an overlap in the scope claimed in the original application and in the divided application, the claims of the original application must be correspondingly changed to exclude the matter claimed in the divisional application.
Ordinance 16/2024 updates the Guidelines for Examining Patent Applications with specifications and in line with Ordinance 14/2024 mentioned above.
Likewise, the main changes are related to divisional applications. In addition to mentioning the changes previously described, this new Ordinance makes it clear that the time limit for the divisional application does not apply to the division of an application when proposed by the BPTO itself (ex officio).
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