Improvements at the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI), a significant reduction in patent examination backlog, and increasingly sophisticated patent litigation have placed Brazil on the radar of innovative companies worldwide. At the same time, regulatory challenges and concerns regarding legal predictability remain at the center of the discussion.
Brazil is undergoing a period of transformation in the field of intellectual property. In recent years, shorter examination timelines at the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), expanded fast-track examination mechanisms, and the maturation of patent litigation have contributed to increasing the country's importance within global innovation strategies.
These developments, however, do not mean that Brazil has yet achieved the same level of predictability found in jurisdictions widely regarded as benchmarks in intellectual property protection. According to industry representatives and legal experts, the country has made consistent progress but still faces challenges related to legal certainty, judicial specialization, and the regulatory environment.
INPI's figures reflect part of this evolution. In 2025, the office received 29,557 patent applications, representing a 6.7% increase compared to the previous year. The number of granted patents reached 13,624, while the average time for a final substantive decision fell to 4.2 years—the shortest period ever recorded.
According to Gabriela Salerno, Ana Paula Brito, and Vicente Rosenfeld, partners at Montaury Pimenta, Machado & Vieira de Mello, this scenario has helped reposition Brazil within the international intellectual property landscape.
"Brazil has gained relevance due to a combination of factors: a significant consumer market, greater judicial sophistication with preliminary injunctions being granted quickly, the growth of global technology disputes, and the consolidation of specialized courts, particularly in Rio de Janeiro, for patent and SEP litigation."
According to the partners, Brazil has moved beyond a secondary role in international technology disputes and is now part of global strategies involving protection, licensing, and negotiation.
"The country is no longer viewed merely as a defensive or secondary jurisdiction. It has become part of global enforcement, licensing, and negotiation strategies."
Despite these advances, the Montaury partners emphasize that further progress is necessary for Brazil to reach the level of more established jurisdictions.
"What is still lacking is broader institutional predictability: a structural reduction of INPI's backlog, greater legislative stability on issues such as patent term protection, and increased transparency and consistency regarding damages, preliminary injunctions, and technical expert opinions. Brazil is now on the global radar, but to establish itself among the most strategic jurisdictions, it must transform isolated judicial advances into systemic legal certainty."
Brazil Becomes Part of Global Protection Decisions
This perception is also shared by the pharmaceutical industry. According to Edson Souza, Director of Intellectual Property at Bayer, Brazil's role in global intellectual property protection strategies has changed significantly in recent years.
"There was a time when decisions regarding the protection of a molecule were made at headquarters, and Brazil entered the process later as an execution market. Today, the question of where and when to seek protection arises at the beginning of the project, and Brazil is part of that discussion from the outset."
According to Souza, the size of Brazil's healthcare and agribusiness markets makes the country relevant from the earliest stages of portfolio planning.
However, he cautions that certain indicators should be interpreted carefully. Although Brazil recently appeared as the leading origin of patent filings in INPI data, this does not automatically translate into global technological leadership.
"The origin of an applicant is not the same as global technological leadership, nor does it automatically reflect the intensity of cutting-edge research."
In his view, the growth in resident filings demonstrates an increased national capacity to formalize innovation, but major global powers continue to play a central role in pharmaceutical and technological research.
BPTO Efficiency Changes Corporate Strategies
Among the factors most frequently highlighted by companies is INPI's operational improvement. The reduction of the backlog and the expansion of accelerated examination programs have begun to directly influence innovation asset protection strategies.
"The impact is immediate, and I give full credit where it is due. INPI has significantly reduced the stock of pending applications awaiting examination, and the current average time to a decision is approximately 4.3 years from filing. For anyone planning patent protection, this makes a substantial difference."
The issue became even more relevant following the Brazilian Supreme Court's decision in Constitutional Challenge (ADI) 5,529, which eliminated the automatic extension of patent terms resulting from administrative delays.
"Every additional month in the examination queue is one less month of effective exclusivity for the product."
In this context, mechanisms such as the Global Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) have gained strategic importance. The program allows applicants to leverage examination results from patent offices in other jurisdictions to accelerate prosecution in Brazil.
SEP Litigation Becomes More Sophisticated
In the judicial arena, one of the most significant transformations observed in recent years has been the growth of disputes involving Standard Essential Patents (SEPs).
According to the Montaury partners, the Brazilian environment has moved beyond discussions focused solely on preliminary injunctions and has begun incorporating more complex issues aligned with international debates.
"The main trend is the increasing sophistication of patent litigation. The debate is no longer limited to whether preliminary injunctions should be granted. It now involves issues such as essentiality, infringement, FRAND conduct, proportionality, abuse of rights, forum shopping, and coordination with parallel proceedings abroad."
Among the trends observed are the growing use of early technical expert opinions, a reduction in ex parte emergency measures in complex cases, and closer integration between litigation strategies and global licensing negotiations.
PTA Litigation Loses Momentum as Debate Shifts to the Legislative Sphere
Another topic that has gained prominence is the consolidation of judicial precedent regarding Patent Term Adjustment (PTA) claims, which seek compensation for administrative delays in patent examination.
Following recent decisions by Brazil's higher courts, experts observe a shift in the focus of the discussion.
After ADI 5,529 abolished the sole paragraph of Article 40 of the Industrial Property Law, which guaranteed a minimum patent term, and in light of the courts' increasingly restrictive approach to judicial extensions of patent validity, the discussion is likely to move toward two fronts: legislative reform and strategic portfolio management."
In practice, companies have increasingly focused on administrative mechanisms and strategic management of their intellectual property portfolios.
"The central message is that the era of reliance on judicial remedies is weakening. The focus has shifted toward legislative predictability, administrative efficiency, and intelligent patent lifecycle management."
Challenges Ahead
While acknowledging recent progress, experts point out that Brazil's consolidation among the world's most relevant intellectual property jurisdictions will depend on overcoming longstanding structural challenges.
For Bayer, one of the key issues under discussion is the creation of legal mechanisms to compensate for administrative and regulatory delays—a practice already adopted in jurisdictions such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, and South Korea.
In addition, judicial specialization remains concentrated in only a few states.
"Most intellectual property cases are filed before state or federal courts in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Rio Grande do Sul, where specialized judges are familiar with the subject matter. Outside these centers, a patent dispute may be assigned to a court with no specific technical expertise, and similar issues may receive drastically different treatment."
Another point highlighted by Souza is the absence of regulatory protection equivalent to that available in other jurisdictions for human-use pharmaceuticals, an issue frequently raised by innovative industries.
According to Souza, the advancement of intellectual property protection is directly linked to a country's ability to attract research and development investments.
"Research capital flows to jurisdictions where the rules are clear and the protection period is reasonable."
This article was originally published by Decisor Brasil, a Leaders League publication.
