New Developments on Patent Prosecution in Latin America

The procedure for submitting an application for participation in the pilot program on “Patent Procedure Highway” (PPH) is the result of an agreement made pursuant to the “Joint Declaration of the Intellectual Property Offices of the Pacific Alliance” in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 8, 2015, between the patent offices of Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico, in order to offer the patent applicant in one of the member countries of this agreement the possibility of applying for the same patent registration in other member country with the benefit of an accelerated examination, ensuring quality and cost-effectiveness.

Such accelerated registration examination shall be allowed upon compliance with the requirements established by each of the offices, provided that the application for which participation in the PPH is requested must have the same earliest date with the corresponding application, whether this be the priority or filing date of a corresponding national application [1].

The aforementioned agreement was signed in January 2016 but came into force in July of that same year; the pilot program will run for a period of three years and may be extended for another year, and during such period the participating countries will evaluate whether the PPH should be fully implemented.

On March 1, 2017, the Chilean industrial property office (INAPI) notified that the registration of the first patent application was filed on December 15, 2016 under this procedure; therefore, Sergio Grijalva is the first inventor to obtain a patent in Chile in less than a year, being 3 years the average time under the regular procedure [2].

Currently, Chilean companies seeking to accelerate the processing of their patents, have also filed the application for the activation of the PPH before the National Institute for the Defense of Competition of Intellectual Property Protection (INDECOPI) of Peru and before the Superintendence of Industry and Trade in Colombia [3].

This initiative means a great opportunity for users and an integration between the intellectual property patent systems of the region, which could later be extended to the rest of Latin America. In addition, it also represents an advantage for the protection of inventions in a more effective way, significantly improving the time and the cost which implies a benefit for both the inventors and the economy of these countries.

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Photo: FreeImages.com/ dlritter

[1] Guía de Procedimiento para presentar una solicitud de participación en el Programa Piloto del “Procedimiento Acelerado de Patentes” Available at: https://alianzapacifico.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Guias-PPH-MX-AP.pdf

[2] INAPI concede la primera patente tramitada de acuerdo al Procedimiento de Examen Acelerado (PPH). Available at: http://www.inapi.cl/portal/prensa/607/w3-article-10803.html

[3] Alianza del Pacífico: Patentar una creación será más simple, rápido y barato entre los países miembros. Available at: http://www.marcotradenews.com/noticias/alianza-del-pacifico-patentar-una-creacion-sera-mas-simple-rapido-y-barato-entre-los-paises-miembros-53776.