From December 1, 2019, the Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program between the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the National Institute of Industrial Property of Brazil (INPI) has been expanded to allow applicants from all technical fields. Previously, the Japan/Brazil PPH program allowed only applications from a limited number of technical fields, such as mechanical engineering and macromolecular chemistry, to be eligible for the accelerated examination offered by the program. (See the flowchart, left, from the JPO for details.)
The expanded PPH pilot program will last for two years, and is currently scheduled to end on December 1, 2021. For more information, please visit the METI website at the following link:
https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2019/1125_001.html