Brazilian Supreme Federal Court (STF) judged the Direct Unconstitutionality Action no. 5529 and canceled the Sole Paragraph of Article 40 of Brazilian IP Law.
This rule provided a minimum term counted from the grant of the registration, which was 10 years for Invention Patent and 7 years for Utility Model Patent. Therefore, depending on the period of the Brazilian PTO exam, the term would be extended.
On 05/06/2021, STF decided to cancel that legal provision, which means that the minimum term counted from the date of grant shall not exist anymore and the term of patents shall be counted from their filing dates:
- Invention Patent: 20 years from the filing date
- Utility Model Patent: 15 years from the filing date
On 05/12/2021 it was defined that such decision shall be applied to all patents to be granted (independently of the field) and to all registrations in the field of pharmaceutical products and processes and equipment for use in the health area, therefore, the terms of the registrations in these fields will be reduced to 15 years (Utility Model) or 20 years (Invention), counted from their filing dates.
For granted patents in other fields of application, the extensions (minimum term) will remain in force.
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