The EPO and Brazil's National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) have reached a bilateral agreement that will mean the two offices exchange patent documents in Portuguese and English to aid machine translation.
EPO president Beniot Battistelli said this "will be instrumental in breaking down language barriers and disclosing a wealth of technical information that inventors, scientists and engineers in both regions can freely use. Complex challenges such as climate change and access to clean water and food cannot be mastered without innovation".
The two offices will also share best practices in patent grant procedure, capacity building, patent information and IT solutions, including e-Patentes, which is built on EPO technology.