Korean Company Shortens Brazil Patent Registration from 11 Years to 8 Months

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The period for registering patents locally in Brazil for Korean companies will be drastically shortened.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced on the 31st that it will implement the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program with Brazil starting from the 1st of next month.

PPH is a system that allows applicants who have filed the same invention with patent offices in two or more countries to submit a registration decision or a notice of allowance received from one country to another country to receive prioritized examination.

Through this, applicants can acquire patent rights for their inventions quickly and efficiently in multiple countries. Additionally, KIPO benefits by utilizing examination results from other countries, reducing the burden during the examination process.

Notably, Brazil, where the new PPH will be applied, is the largest consumer market in Latin America (with a population of 210 million), and Korea's exports to Brazil amount to as much as $4.9 billion annually (based on 2018), making it a significant market.

The importance of protecting and utilizing intellectual property rights in Brazil is also increasing. It is understood that domestic companies have been filing more than 2,500 patent applications annually since 2012.

On the other hand, until now, it has taken an average of 11.2 years to complete the patent registration process after filing in Brazil, making it practically difficult for companies entering the local market to protect their rights quickly. However, with the implementation of PPH, the time required for patent registration is expected to be shortened to around 8 months, according to KIPO.

Park Won-joo, Commissioner of KIPO, said, “With the implementation of PPH, we expect that Korean companies targeting the Brazilian market will be able to quickly secure intellectual property rights and commercialize their businesses.” He added, “KIPO will continue to expand support for securing overseas intellectual property rights to enhance the global competitiveness of our companies.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.