Constitutional Challenge (ADI) 5529 And Patent Term Adjustment/Extension

1 Introduction – Constitutional Challenge (ADI) 5529

Filed on 17 May 2016, by the acting Federal Attorney General ("PGR"), Mr. Rodrigo Janot, the objective of Constitutional Challenge (ADI) 5529 before the Supreme Federal Court ("STF") was to declare the sole paragraph of Article 40 of Law no. 9,279/96¹ - Industrial Property Law (LPI) - unconstitutional, which set forth that the term of validity for a patent for an invention should not be less than 10 years, and for a patent for a utility model 7 years, from the respective granting dates.

The challenge questioned extensions in the term of validity for patents in the event of administrative delay in the examination of applications at the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office ("BPTO") [National Institute of Industrial Property ("INPI")], using the argument that the mentioned legal regulation authorised a perpetual exclusive right to the patented technologies. Notably, it is observed that the constitutional issue