Brazilian Patent Office Will Resume The Preexamination Pilot Program

In an attempt to reduce the current backlog, the Brazilian Patent Office (BRPTO) released on January a pilot program that established a preexamination office action. Such office action did not comprise any allegations, objections or rejections raised by the examiner, but only the main prior art references cited during the examination proceedings in other jurisdictions (mainly US, EP and JP).

Then, the applicant was invited to reply this office action by conforming the Brazilian application to the allowed set of claims of its counterparts. It is important to observe that this preexamination office action did not skip the regular examination proceedings. Therefore, the applicant had further opportunities to defend its application.