Camila Vieira Guimarães
Lawyer at Marcos Martins Advogados
The Federal Supreme Court (STF) is scheduled to rule on the constitutionality of the minimum patent term contained in the sole paragraph of article 40 of Law No. 9,279/96 (Industrial Property Law) on April 7, 2021.
Due to the delay by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in analyzing patent applications, with the aim of minimizing the risk of a patent being granted when the term of validity has already expired or the owner taking short-term advantage of their invention, a minimum term of validity of 10 years for inventions and 7 years for utility models was inserted into the Industrial Property Law for when the INPI takes a long time to analyze a patent application.
This decision could have an impact on all patent holders in Brazil, including those waiting for their applications to be decided by the INPI.
Marcos Martins Advogados is attentive to the judgment that will soon be handed down by the Federal Supreme Court and is ready to advise its clients by applying the most contemporary jurisprudential understandings and legal institutes.
