Agreements with Brazil and Tunisia enter into force

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1 December 2017

Two major agreements signed by the EPO with Brazil and Tunisia will
enter into force today. The agreements will mean new services for companies
and inventors from Europe and the two countries and support innovation through
legally robust patents.

Fast-track procedure with Brazil

With the launch of a joint Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) pilot programme between the EPO and Brazil’s National Institute of
Industrial Property, inventors and businesses
applying for patent protection at the EPO and in Brazil will be able to obtain patents more quickly and efficiently through fast-track patent examination. The PPH will
also enable the patent offices to share and re-use existing work results. The
arrangement is the first of its kind between Brazil and a patent office in
Europe, with patent applications in certain technical fields  eligible. The EPO now has nearly a dozen PPH pilot
programmes running with patent offices around the world.

Validation of European patents in Tunisia

An
agreement allowing European patent applications and patents to be validated for
Tunisia also enters into force today.  As a result,
inventors and businesses filing a European patent application will now be able
to request validation for Tunisia. European applications and patents validated by
the EPO for Tunisia will have the same legal effects as a Tunisian patent and
will be subject to Tunisian patent law. The agreement, signed in 2014 and the
third of its kind to enter into force following similar ones with
Morocco and the Republic of Moldova, brings to 43 the number of
countries for which patent protection can be obtained on the basis of a single
European patent application. 

Further information

On
the Patent Prosecution Highway programme with Brazil:

On the validation agreement with Tunisia: