The Director of our office in Mexico, Mr Eric Alavez, has informed us that on April 27, 2018, the most important reform to the industrial property law in Mexico in the last 25 years will come into force. The most important changes are the following:

• Utility Model and Industrial Design applications will now be published as soon as the formal examination is completed. Divisional patent applications will also be published. Under the current law publication is not carried out for such type of applications.

On 5 February in Buenos Aires, the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) and the European Patent Office (EPO) signed a memorandum of understanding on the introduction of the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC).

"The signature of this MoU responds to the strategic objective to simplify all the procedures of the public administration," said Dámaso Pardo, President of INPI, in an EPO press release. "The use of the CPC will lead to a more efficient search process and will facilitate the substantive examination done by INPI examiners. This will bring a significant benefit to the public, as it will improve the timeline of the patent granting process", he added.

Please be informed that the BRPTO published on January 30, 2018, the Resolution No. 209 implementing the PPH Pilot program between SIPO and BRPTO. According to this Resolution, the Applicant may request fast-track examination for a Brazilian patent application whose Chinese counterpart has been already allowed.

PARTICULAR RESTRICTIONS TO THE ELIGIBILITY:

The Program will accept applications belonging to patent families whose at least:

• the first application has been filed at the BRPTO or the SIPO; and 
• in case of a PCT application the BRPTO or SIPO was designed as receiving office. 

January 11, 2018

This is to kindly inform you that on January 11, 2018 Decree 27/2018 was published in the Official Gazette.

Said Decree seeks to simplify and reduce the length of proceedings before an important number of national offices and departments introducing substantial modifications in the Laws and rules governing them.

The key amendments are the following

TRADEMARKS

• Filing of oppositions at INPI shall be submitted electronically.
• The manner in which oppositions are settled will be amended: If the parties fail to reach settlement within a 3 months period (previously 12) as of the date applicant is notified of the opposition, the Trademark Office will issue a decision after the parties undergo an administrative proceeding that has still to be outlined. Decisions issued by the Trademark Office will be subject to appeal before the Federal Court of Appeals within 30 working days.
• The Trademark Office will have the authority to decide on the cancellation and lapsing of trademarks in accordance with the regulations that are still to be issued. In what respects cancellation of trademarks, exception is made of any cases involving piracy or bad faith.
• The Trademark Office will have the authority to issue cancel registrations on a partial basis (on the grounds of non-use), with respect to products or services that are unrelated to the products or services for which the trademark has been used, creating a limit for defense trademarks.
  Trademark Office decisions on any trademark cancellations will be subject to appeal directly before the Chamber of Appeals mentioned in 2).
• Submission of a sworn declaration of use will be mandatory between the fifth and sixth year from registration.