The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BRPTO) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) Pilot Program between the two Offices. It came into force April 1, 2020.
This PPH Pilot Program with South Korea will expire on March 31, 2025, being applicable to all technological fields and within the limit of 400 requests among all PTOs that have signed the MoU, according to the Resolution PR No. 252/2019.
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The following requirements must be complied for an application to be accepted in this PPH Pilot Program:
- it must have been filed for at least 18 months or have a request for anticipated publication or, in case of international applications, have been published by the WIPO;
- it must have its request for examination submitted to the BRPTO;
- it must have not been accepted in any fast-track examination program and not have its technical examination initiated by the BRPTO;
- it must have not been voluntarily divided or amended by the applicant between the PPH request submission and the decision of the PPH procedure;
- it must belong to a patent family having at least the oldest patent application filed in the BRPTO or in the Earlier Examination Office, acting as a National or Regional office, or in case of PCT applications, acting as a Receiving Office (RO);
- it must belong to a patent family having an application examined by the Earlier Examination Office, acting as a National Office, and considered as comprising patentable subject matter after the technical, substantive or merit examination;
- it must belong to a patent family for which the Earlier Examination Office, acting as a National Office, has issued an allowance or granting decision; and
- it must claim the same or a more restrictive subject matter when compared to the one considered patentable by the Earlier Examination Office for the application of the same patent family. The claim chart submitted with the PPH request cannot have additional subject matter when compared with the claim chart examined by the Earlier Examination Office, even if it has a more restrictive scope of protection.
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