BRPTO’s deadlines suspended due to COVID-19 outbreak

March 19, 2020

BRPTO’s deadlines suspended due to COVID-19 outbreak

(BRPTO’s gazette of March 17th, 2020)

The BRPTO published on March 17th, 2020 in its Official Gazette #2567, Ordinance #120/2020 suspending all deadlines from March 16th to April 14th, 2020 due to the Coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19). In-person meetings at the BRPTO have also been suspended for an undetermined period of time. Doubts or clarifications should be resolved through the BRPTO’s online channel.

The Ordinance also mentions that further measures may be required depending on the developments of the COVID-19 outbreak in Brazil. When necessary, users will be informed in due course.

We take this opportunity to share with you that the BRPTO’s Commissioner for Patents, Ms. Liane Lage, informed that the deadlines suspension aims the deadlines reassurance and users’ organization on telework, which is necessary in this moment of crisis. Nevertheless, she reinforced that the BRPTO is working at its full capacity, and users should not be impacted.

We would like to emphasize that we have a robust telework system in place, that counts with the high availability of all systems used at Licks Attorneys in Microsoft Azure and Amazon servers. Our systems enable all Licks Attorneys’ members to work from any location, including home, while continuing to provide our clients with full operational services, with the same level of security we enjoy at our offices, as part of our ISO business continuation plan. In view of that, we suggest our clients to timely comply with all deadlines, whenever possible, in order to avoid unnecessary backlogs.

The original Portuguese version of Ordinance #120/2020 is available here. You can download the English version here.