The MERCOSUR Member States (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) together with the EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland) signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on September 16, 2025, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The agreement will enter into force two months after ratification by at least one country of the MERCOSUR and one country of the EFTA.
ANNEX XVII of the Agreement contains provisions related to intellectual property.
Key Highlights
- Amendments: The Agreement foresees the right of patent applicants to make amendments, corrections and to respond to observations during prosecution. Amendments and corrections must not extend beyond the subject matter of the application as originally filed. This provision contradicts the Brazilian Legislative Bill 2210/2022 which aims at restricting amendments and opposed by our firm, the local IP associations and many other interested parties. This provision of the FTA also shows that global stakeholders are paying attention to recent initiatives of the Brazilian government that do not support innovation and legal certainty.
- Prosecution Timelines: The Agreement specifies that patent applications should be processed expeditiously, with a view to avoiding unreasonable delays. This also shows the interest of global stakeholders in the recurrent patent backlog in Brazil.
- Patentability: The Agreement confirms that patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and are capable of industrial application.
- Exclusions: The Agreement allows exclusions from patentability in specific cases, such as inventions contrary to ordre public or morality, diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods, and certain plant and animal varieties. The FTA also curiously allows the possibility of shorter term of protection for designs of componente parts used for the purpose of the repair of a product.
- Regulatory Review Exception: The Agreement requires the Parties to maintain an exception to patent rights for acts necessary to obtain marketing authorisation for pharmaceutical products, consistent with international standards (the “Bolar exemption”).
The agreement also includes a restatement of the Doha Declaration and has provisions on copyright, trademarks, enforcement and geographical indications.
Should you have any questions about how this new regulatory framework may affect your initiatives in Brazil, our team will be pleased to assist you.
