With the advent of the New Brazilian Industrial Property Law, Law nº 9.279/96, put in force on May 15, 1997, Normative Act 127/97 of May 3, 1997 introduced certain modifications in the formal aspects of Brazilian patent applications. Amongst them, several dispositions affect the characteristics of the formal drawings to be presented at the time an application is filed.

Some requirements of the formal drawings are being strictly verified by the local Patent Office during the preliminary formal examination conducted at the time of the filing. Non-compliance with such requirements gives cause to the issuance of an Official Action which is to be complied with within an unextendible 30-day term, under penalty of loss of the filing date.

For your information, these requirements are the following:

Paper - Formal drawings are to be presented in standard A4 paper.

Margins - The following are the minimum margins to obey:

upper 2,5 cm - preferably 4 cm
left 2,5 cm - preferably 3 cm
right 1,5 cm
lower 1 cm

Pages and individual figures should not be framed or bordered by lines.

Legends and reference symbols - All letters and numbers in a drawing must be at least 3.2 mm tall (1/8 ").

2000 © Momsen, Leonardos & Cia.