Brazil’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) announced on August 25, 2026 that it had launched a collaborative patent examination project with Uruguay’s National Directorate of Industrial Property (DNPI). The first phase targets pharmaceuticals, including chemical and biological drugs, biotechnology and natural products. Eligible cases must have been filed through the PCT system, have corresponding applications from the same patent family before both offices, and, for the Brazilian filing, have entered the national phase in 2021 or 2022. INPI said eight Brazilian patent applications were selected for the initial batch; these cases will be removed from the ordinary examination queue and brought forward for substantive review, without first receiving the preliminary technical examination notice identified by code 6.23.
The initiative closely follows Brazil’s earlier life-sciences collaborative examination project with Peru’s INDECOPI and suggests that INPI is testing a repeatable regional model for reducing duplicated search work and long waiting periods. It should not be read as mutual recognition of examination outcomes: once substantive review begins, each office still applies its own law and procedure. For pharmaceutical and biotechnology applicants, the practical effect is mainly one of timing. Companies with parallel PCT family filings in Brazil and Uruguay may need to align claim strategy, prior-art analysis and prosecution records earlier than they would under the ordinary queue, while avoiding any assumption that accelerated handling guarantees a particular scope of protection.
