Patent analysis in Brazil takes 3 years longer than the world average

Responsible for analyzing, granting and registering intellectual property rights and geographical indication, the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) is central to innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. This is because when registering the brand, patent or industrial design at the institute, the brand becomes an intangible asset. Thus, the owner company has the exclusive right to use the brand throughout Brazil and in more than 137 countries.

However, although the INPI has been working to reduce the analysis deadlines for granting patents and registering trademarks in recent years, the process is still time-consuming and discourages companies and researchers from protecting their inventions in Brazil.

According to the institute, the current average patent analysis time is 5 years from the examination request – which may be longer or shorter depending on the sector – and 3.4 years without contestation. On a world average, the process for examining patents and trademarks takes 2 years. For the interim president of the INPI, Júlio César Moreira, Brazil has the conditions to reduce and equal the most efficient offices in the world.

“People with 5 years effectively cannot provide a service with quality, efficiency. We are in a position to reduce this period, we are in a position to reach 2 years from filing and the need for this is to ensure that the processes that arrive in Brazil are adequately protected to position these actors appropriately not only in the Brazilian market, but in the world market”, he says.

strategic plan

In order to simplify processes and impact costs by 2026, INPI presented a Strategic Plan for the next 4 years. According to the president, the main objective of the plan is to make the INPI an element that drives innovation in Brazil in order to meet society’s demands. According to him, the institute is working with three pillars.

“There are three main ones, the first of which is: more servers to meet the demand we have. Second part of technological information: INPI today is 100% automatic, but we need to advance in its capacity to produce technological results mainly aimed at computerizing the institute. And thirdly: having autonomy that allows us to have the necessary resources so that we can implement our projects ”, he explains.

In a note, the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (MDIC), informed that the efficiency of the services provided by the INPI is among the priorities of the Ministry. “The quality and agility in the processing of requests deposited at the Institute is a fundamental element for the business environment in the country”, says the note.

According to the ministry, measures are being taken together with the institute to reach the goal of decisions on patent applications in 2 years, until 2026. Among them: