Singaporean Patent Office joins PPH program with the BRPTO

May 7, 2020

Singaporean Patent Office joins PPH program with the BRPTO

BRPTO’s website notification

The BRPTO’s new PPH Pilot program issued under Rule #252/2019, is still receiving new participating Patent Offices. On May 1st, 2020 the BRPTO notified the Brazilian patent system users via its website that the Singaporean Patent Office (IPOS) joined the program. Up to this date, the following Offices have been confirmed in this new PPH program:

We take this opportunity to remind you that the following Offices are currently part of PROSUR PPH agreement, as follows:

As mentioned in our client alert issued in December 2019, this program unifies the PPH agreements signed by the BRPTO and adds the possibility of expediting the examination of patent applications belonging to any field of technology. According to Rule #252/2019, eligible applications must belong to a patent family comprising an application considered as endowed with the patentability requirements by the Earlier Examination Office after the substantive examination.

The Rule establishes limitations to i) the number of applications which will be accepted in the program (400 applications per year); ii) the number of applications per applicant (one per month); and iii) the number of applications per IPC Section (100 applications per section per year). It will close on November 30, 2022.

Up to this moment 109 applications have been accepted into this PPH program. Said applications belong to the following IPC sections:

The original Portuguese version of Rule #252/2019 is available here. Please contact us for the English version.