The Brazilian government is soon expected to launch an emergency measure to resolve its chronic backlog of over 230,000 patent applications by eliminating substantive examinations and instead automatically granting pending patent applications. The measure is not expected to apply to pharmaceutical patent applications or divisional applications where the parent application has been examined. An enactment date of the measure has not yet been announced, however, given the short expected time frame for action, patent applicants may want to begin to develop strategies now for responding to the measure.

To read the memorandum