The Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (BPTO) published in Official Bulletin no. 2,829, of March 25, 2025, Ordinance no. 03, which updates the provisions for requests under Phase V of the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program in 2025.
Ordinance no. 03 now allows 140 PPH requests for patent applications classified as H04 in the International Patent Classification (IPC) during the second quarter of 2025.
Ordinance no. 03 also renews the limit of 800 PPH requests for the second quarter of 2025, regardless of their acceptance. Said limit will be reset on the first day of every quarter, until the previously announced limit of 3,200 annual PPH requests is reached. It should be highlighted that in case of inadmissibility of fast-track prosecution based on the limits imposed by this Ordinance, the patent application will have a regular prosecution, and any amendments submitted together with the PPH request will not be considered. On the other hand, it is possible to request refund of the fees collected for the fast-track prosecution request not admitted based on this Ordinance and submit a new PPH request when the limits are reset.
Statistics related to the PPH requests will be published every week on the BPTO’s website. Ordinance no. 03 comes into force on April 1st, 2025.
