Since December 2015, the Brazilian Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) is accelerating the examination of industrial design applications by means of Regulations No. 44 and 45/2015.
The first change is aimed at lowering the technical requirements for industrial design applications, especially lowering the number of requests for corrections made by the INPI. Additionally, INPI will change ex officio the title of the application when it is deemed incorrect.
The second main change is directed to the formal examination. From now on, the INPI will focus only on the examination of the figures filed by the applicant of the industrial design. This change will last at first for two years.
In Brazil, once an application is filed, INPI conducts only a formal examination, but not a substantive examination in order to assess if the industrial design is new and original. Therefore, since a substantive examination is not compulsory during the registration proceedings, the owner of an industrial design may request immediately after the grant of the registration a Merits Examination ("exame do mérito") where INPI will examine if the design is original and new.
According to Regulation No. 45/2015, the approximate number of pending industrial design applications in November 2015 was 13,550. During 2015, 6,039 industrial design applications were filed with INPI (according to INPI statistics).
Source: http://www.inpi.gov.br
Previously published 1 February 2016
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
