Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2019 submitted by BRAZIL/INPI

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realization

The INPI is currently correcting the lack of abstract information and publications in its database. Over the past two years, more than 169.422 patent applications filed between 2000 and 2016 were verified and digitally made available in the national patent information search website.

Around 30.000 publication documents filed before 1971 have been curated, and 100.000 should be concluded by 2022.

New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks

N/A

Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year

N/A

Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes

The Brazilian IP Office has received 28,318 patent applications in 2019 (+2.8% from 2018). The amount has risen 2.2% for patents of invention and 9.1% for patents of utility models.

In 2019, with 28,318 patent applications filed, the number of resident applications has increased and achieved 5,465 (+9.7%), while non-resident applications has slightly increased (+0.3%) to 19,877.

Regarding the grants, in 2019, Brazil granted 10,947 patents of invention and 902 patents of utility models, a 9.8% and 17.9% increase, respectively, when compared to 2018. New examining procedures implemented are responsible for this increase.

Among the main foreign countries that were awarded with patent grants in 2019 are the United States of America with 37.8% of the non-residents total, followed by Germany with 8.8%, Japan with 8.0% and China with 6%.

A full report can be found at https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/acesso-a-informacao/pasta-x/boletim-mensal/arquivos/documentos/indicadores-2020_aecon_vf-27-01-2021.pdf (in portuguese)

Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.

Other statistics related to Brazilian patents applications are available at https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/central-de-conteudo/estatisticas (in portuguese)

II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs

General guidance manuals for patent filling on paper are available at (Portuguese only)

https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/servicos/patentes/guia-basico/ManualBsicodePatentes20210607b.pdf. 

INPI has discontinued the former electronic filing platform known as e-Deposito which required a specific software to be downloaded by the user. A new web-based electronic filing tool was launched and can be accessed at

https://gru.inpi.gov.br/peticionamentoeletronico/

The electronic filing manual can be access at (Portuguese only):

https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/servicos/patentes/guia-basico/ManualBsicodePatentes20210607b.pdf

Availability of the application dossier in electronic form

The dossiers of the application are now indexed and can be accessed on the internet through a patent search system (https://busca.inpi.gov.br/pePI/jsp/patentes/PatenteSearchBasico.jsp), when available in electronic format.

Classification¹, preclassification² (if applicable), reclassification³ activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information

Two classification systems are used at the Office, IPC and CPC. While IPC is available in Portuguese (http://ipc.inpi.gov.br) applied by all areas, CPC was not translated and neither all areas apply to classify their documents yet. We use INID (51) for IPC, as expected, and (52) for CPC since December 2014.

INPI pre-classifies an application by allotting an administrative unit, i.e. a technical area, using automated means (neural network algorithm). All administrative units are automatically ranked for every application and the application is then routed to the first technical area ranked. If this first choice is incorrect, the application can be rerouted to another unit, usually the second one ranked.

We suggest our examiners to reclassify a document during the technical exam. We don’t update our database when a family member of the document is reclassified by another Office due a new IPC version, yielding to many documents reclassified during the exam. When a patent application is reclassified, it receives an automatic publication in the Gazette.

Regarding IPC projects, the INPI has been Rapporteur of 50 projects, being 16 C-projects (creation of new groups), 11 M-projects (maintenance) and 22 D-projects (definitions). We participated in all online meetings and task forces; we continue our engagement in the IPC-forum and IPC meetings.

We use WIPO systems related to classification, i.e. IPCPUB for the IPC publication, IPCRMS for translating the IPC and IPCRECLASS for reclassification due new IPC versions.

Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents

The INPI is correcting the lack of abstracts and publications in its database. Over the past year, more than 150,000 patent applications filed between 2000 and 2016 were verified. 30.000 new abstracts are available at the search web site. No translation is provided at this moment.

Other activities

N/A

III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE

Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)

Office actions, communications and selected bibliographic data relating to BR patent applications and granted patents are published weekly in the official electronic Brazilian Official Gazette (Revista da Propriedade Industrial - RPI). Official editions of published gazettes are available on the Brazilian Patent Office website in PDF and TXT format, at http://revistas.inpi.gov.br/rpi/. All published official gazettes are stored in the library and available to the public.

Bibliographic data of Brazilian patents are available for consultation at https://busca.inpi.gov.br/pePI/. At this link

• Patents may be searched using keywords in titles and/or abstracts, only in Portuguese.
• Patents may be searched using some inid codes like IPC (51), patent number (11), patent applications (21), etc.
• The first (1^st) and second (2^nd) publication (granted patents) of patent documents (*pdf) can be open or/and downloaded.
• The first (1^st) and/or second (2nd) corrected version of a patent document (*pdf) can be open or/and downloaded – only first page.

Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.

Office actions, communications and selected bibliographic data relating to BR patent applications and granted patents are published weekly in the official electronic Brazilian Official Gazette (Revista da Propriedade Industrial - RPI). Official editions of published gazettes are available on the Brazilian Patent Office website in PDF and TXT format, at http://revistas.inpi.gov.br/rpi/. All published official gazettes are stored in the library and available to the public.

Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases

Internal users can access: Epoque, Derwent Innovation, SequenceBase, CAS-STN and INPI’s internal database.

Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)

INPI currently gives public free access to patent document collections (more than 800.000 documents) on our website (https://busca.inpi.gov.br/pePI/). At this link, the external users can search patent information’s.

Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)

Only internal users can access all legal statuses, but the INPI publishes the kind codes in order to identify patent applications or /and granted patents ((https://busca.inpi.gov.br/pePI/)).

Kind codes

A2, U2 and E2 - first level publication

B1, Y1 and F1 – second level publication (Granted patent)

A8, U8 and E8 – Corrected first page of A or U or E document

B8, Y8 and F8 – Corrected first page of B or Y or F document

Other sources

N/A

IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE

Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements

N/A

Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office

Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources

N/A

Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file

N/A

Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)

N/A

Other matters

N/A

V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION

Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries

INPI's Library offers a range of products and services in terms of industrial property information. Library's catalog is available at INPI website. The Library's Reading Room offers OPAC terminals where general public may access to bibliographic and industrial property databases. The Library is a member of the WIPO Depositary Libraries Program,  opening its collection to users from Brazil. As a member of "Portal Periódicos Portal" Consortium, INPI's Library provide access to more than 30,000 periodical titles and 160 bibliographic, statistical, sound and visual databases in all technological fields. Also, the Library is a member of COMUT, a national commutation program from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. As a partner of COMUT, INPI's Library may access to collections from more than 2,500 partners in Brazil and overseas

Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.

Patent documents represent a great source of technological information, that allows knowing what has been developed in a specific technical field, the technological routes used and other important data for those who aim to innovate. INPI's Studies and Projects Division (DIESP) publishes different kinds of studies, named “Estudos Setoriais” and “Radares tecnológicos”, focusing on patent information, in order to stimulate the strategic use of technological information by Brazilian industry and Universities, based on specific themes of national interest. These studies, which can be developed in partnership with other government institutions or professional associations, make it possible to subsidize the development of new regulatory frameworks, assist in the sector evaluation of industrial policy results, and allow better use of resources to promote research, development and technological innovation.

https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/assuntos/informacao/radares-tecnologicos

https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/assuntos/informacao/estudos-setoriais

https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/servicos/patentes/tecnologias-para-covid-19/Estudos

Office's initiatives on providing foreign patent information in the local language(s) (e.g., machine translation tools, translation of abstracts)

The INPI does not have translation tools or services, although some content on its website is provided in English.

Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.

N/A

Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.

N/a

Other activities

N/a

VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION

International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information

INPI provides ST.36 information in XML format to other offices and WIPO in the events related to the publication of applications and grantings. ST.26 data is currently accepted by the office and will start being sent to WIPO in 2022.

Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information

The INPI is a member of PROSUL and IBEPI, regional technical cooperation initiatives of National Industrial Property Offices. PROSUR gathers countries from South and Central America. IBEPI is formed by Ibero-American countries. In both forums there are committees to discuss patent and technological information issues.

Among PROSUR’s actions in 2020, it is possible to mention a webinar with the winners of the II Latin American Patented Invention Contest; a report with public domain technologies to strike covid-19; and the regional Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) initiative.  IBEPI also is producing technological information reports and, besides that, delivered a Guide on the importance of Patent Information for SMEs.

In the IP BRICS cooperation, INPI has continued the conversation with the other offices of the group towards possible future agreements on patent information.

In 2020, new PPH agreements were signed by INPI with Austria, South Korea, Sweden and Singapore. Several others remain in force, as can be seen at: https://www.gov.br/inpi/pt-br/servicos/patentes/pph/acordos-pph-assinados-pelo-inpi.

Assistance to developing countries

N/A

Other activities

N/A

VII. OTHER RELATED MATTERS

N/A

1.Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.

2. Preclassification is allotting an initial broad classification symbol (e.g., IPC class or subclass, or administrative unit) to a patent application, using human or automated means for internal administrative purposes (e.g., routing an application to the appropriate examiner).  Usually preclassification is applied by the administration of an office.

3. Reclassification is the reconsideration and usually the replacement of one or more previously allotted classification symbols to a patent document, following a revision and the entry into force of a new version of the Classification system (e.g., the IPC).  The new symbols are available on patent databases.