A trial court decision that was delivered in June by Judge Marcio Solter will force IMPI practice to improve (Komlog v Vice Commissioner for Patents at IMPI).
A trial court decision that was delivered in June by Judge Marcio Solter, who sits in the 31st Federal Court in Rio de Janeiro, an IP trial court that hears cases against the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), will force IMPI practice to improve (Komlog v Vice Commissioner for Patents at IMPI).
Created in 1970, IMPI was perceived as an agency with management problems. Nowadays, its patent backlog is huge (almost 10 years for first office action), and examination quality is low and plagued by red tape. Problems such as a lack of transparency at IMPI tend to be overlooked by inventors who have a host of other difficulties to contend with when dealing with the agency.
IMPI makes patent applications available as filed only, by means of a link to the European Patent Office (EPO) website, which has published Brazilian applications since August 1, 2006. However, links to EPO Espacenet often return the following message: “Invalid or missing parameters in the request”. Nevertheless, this is better than having nothing published, which is IMPI standard policy regarding issued patents.
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IMPI, patent examination
