The BRPTO yesterday published Instruction # 151 regulating conditions for prioritized examination requests of patent applications. This Instruction revokes Instruction # 68 of 2013, but maintains many of the previously established conditions. The most important amendments are as follows:

• individuals with functional or mental disabilities or other severe diseases can now request prioritized examination of their applications;
• applicants or patentees of first filed applications can now request prioritized examination of a third party’s application when the relevant subject matter is the same;
• the Ministry of Health is no longer entitled to request prioritized examination of applications entailing drugs regularly bought by the Brazilian Public Health System.

The conditions of Instruction # 68 remain valid where Applicants are individuals over the age of 60, where unauthorized reproduction of the subject matter of a patent application is taking place in Brazil, or where an Applicant is in need of a granted patent to receive funds to exploit the subject matter of a patent application. Moreover, the Brazilian Government reserved its rights to prioritize examination of those applications relevant for national emergency or public interest.This new Instruction entered in force yesterday, November 10, 2015. The English version is available here.