1. What is a word trademark?

A word trademark is constituted by one or more words in the wide sense of the Roman alphabet, also comprising neologisms and any combination of letters and/or Roman and/or Arabic numbers.

2. What is a figurative mark?

A figurative mark is constituted by a picture, image or any stylized image.

3. What is a mixed trademark?

A mixed trademark is constituted by the combination of word and figurative elements or word elements whose spelling is presented in a stylized manner.

4. What is a three-dimensional trademark?

A three-dimensional trademark is constituted by the plastic form of the product or package, the form of which is distinctive itself and dissociated from any means of technical effect.

5. What is a collective trademark?

A collective trademark is intended to identify products or services derived from a member of a specific entity.

6. O que é marca de certificação?

A certification trademark attests the compliance of a product or service with standardized norms or technical specifications specially with respect to the quality, nature, material and methodology used.

7. What are the owner’s rights and duties?

The trademark assures the property and the exclusive use within the national territory for ten years. The owner must keep it in use and renew it every ten years.

8. When is the right lost?

The trademark registration ceases in case of expiration, waiver (voluntary abandonment of the owner or legal representative), prescription (lack of use) or non-compliance with the provision of art. 217 of the LPI.

9. Can any individual person require the registration?

An individual person can require the registration of a trademark as long as the activity performed is proved, through an accreditation document issued by the competent body. The professional license is verified at the entity in charge of the registration or inscription.

10. For how long is a trademark registration valid?

The trademark shall be in effect for ten years, from the date the registration is granted and can be renewed for equal and successive periods.
The renewal request shall be filed during the last year of the registration validity together with the payment receipt of the respective contribution. In case the renewal request is not made until the validity end of the registration, the owner may request it within the six following months, upon the payment of an additional contribution.

1. What is a patent?

It is a temporary title of property delivered by the Government, under the applicable law, to the inventor/author or people whose rights derive from them, so that they can exclude third parties without their prior notice from acts related to the protected subject, such as the manufacturing, trade, import, use, sale etc.

2. What are the nature types of a patent?

Due to differences between inventions, they may be classified into the following natures or modalities: Patent of Invention (PI) – the invention shall meet the requirements of inventive activity, innovation and industrial application. Utility Model (UM) – new way or pattern involving inventive act which results in functional improvement of the object. There is also the Certificate of Addition to Invention, in order to protect an improvement elaborated for a subject already required or even a Patent of Invention. If the industrially possible creation is related to the ornamental plastic shape of an object or cluster of lines and colors to be applied to a product, resulting in a new and original visual in its external configuration and which may serve as a type of manufacturing, the Registration of Industrial Design may be required, since it may not be considered a patent in this case.

3. What is patentable?

Any matter not legally prohibited and in compliance with the Articles 8 and 9 of the Industrial Property Law is patentable, that is: the invention must be provided with novelty, industrial use, inventive activity and descriptive sufficiency; the Utility Model (UM) must be provided of novelty, industrial use, inventive act and descriptive sufficiency.

The protection of the UM may only be granted to an object of practical use (processes and systems are excluded) which results as an inventive act (not in a common or vulgar way of the technical state, analyzed by a technician in the matter) resulting in functional improvement in its manufacturing use. Designs are obligatory and the requirement must also present the best manufacturing process.

4. How long does a Patent last?

The Patent of Invention shall last for 20 (twenty) years and the Utility Model for 15 (fifteen) years from the date of the filling of the application (Art. 40 of the LPI).

5. What rights are granted to the patent owner?

The patent owner has the right to hinder third parties, without prior consent, from producing, selling, using, importing a patented product or process or product directly obtained through a patented process (Chapter V, Title I of the Industrial Property Law). Third parties may use the invention only if permitted by the owner (license).

6.How to protect the invention in other countries?

There is only one way to do it: directly in the country where you want to protect it. In order to simplify these procedures, the inventor may choose the PCT system, in which, as you fill the application in a PCT member country (Brazil is one of them, the application shall be filled at INPI), the countries you choose to require your patent are designated.

The inventor shall receive a report of international search, which will help him/her to make a decision whether to require a patent in each country or not. The inventor has the period of twenty or thirty months, if a preliminary international exam has been required for this national phase, from the date of the international application.

Thus, filing an application does not assure an international patent, but simplifies the process especially because it provides a search report, a preliminary exam (if required by the inventor) and an extension of the period for the application of the national phases if compared to the traditional system of patents which used to provide only 12 months for this action.

7. Is it possible to disclose an invention or model before applying?

It is always advisable to apply first. However, if previous disclosure is necessary and for the novelty not to be affected there is the Grace Period, which allows such disclosure 12 (twelve) months before the application for inventions and Utility Models.

The disclosure by the inventor shall not be considered as state of technique, if occurred during the first twelve months before the date of application. Thus, such disclosure shall not invalidate the application of the own inventor occurred during the twelve-month grace period. However, if a third party, aware of such disclosure, requires the same patent, before the application by the inventor, this third party shall not obtain the patent due to the disclosure, but may use the second application against the novelty of the inventor’s application.

In this case, the application made by the inventor shall be denied due to the lack of novelty. In addition, some countries do not recognize the grace period. Thus, the safest way of protection is to disclose the invention only after having applied at INPI.

It is advisable to declare, in the application form, the conditions for disclosure (Art. 12 of the LPI). The Grace Period is not incorporated to that of the union priority right.

Be careful! Many countries do not recognize the grace period.

Once the validity of a patent is over, does the owner have any right to impede the use of the invention or model?

No. Once the validity is over, in case of lack of payment, in case of non-exploitation of a patent or waive by the owner, the rights of the owner terminate and the invention becomes a public domain and any person can freely use it.