Re-key of Brazilian data - update

Newsflash 09/07

Bibliographic data

The EPO is soon to begin with the re-key operation for Brazilian data which had previously been scheduled for week 26/2008 but then postponed.

The re-keyed documents will be included in the DOCDB XML deliveries and in esp@cenet from week 09/2009 onwards.

Contrary to the initial planning of re-keying all the BR documents, the actual implementation foresees a less incisive and voluminous operation. About 20.000 patent families will be affected and the amendment documents will be contained in the regular weekly updates.

The rules for the re-key operation are straightforward i.e. publication and application numbers for all BR patent applications filed from 1.1.2004 onwards will be formatted as follows:

Patent of invention  =  PIyynnnnn    

Utility model            =  MUyynnnnn

The same rule applies to BR priorities in non-BR documents.

For BR applications prior to 2004 the formatting rule is 'yynnnnn' for patents of invention and utility models without the "PI" or "MU" prefix.

The limit date 1.1.2004 had been chosen in order to keep the number of re-keys in both data sets (prior to 2004 and from 2004 onwards) to a minimum.

Please also refer to the publication and application format tables on our web site under "Useful Tables"

Legal status data

The upload of Brazilian PRS frontfile data will be resumed from week 12/2009 onwards.  The (around 600000 records) backfile data will be uploaded in week 11/2009. The formatting of the publication and application numbers will follow the same rules as those for the bibliographic (DOCDB) data.