Brazil Joins the Budapest Treaty: A Strategic Step Forward for Biotechnology and the Protection of Biological Innovations

Legislative Decree No. 174/25, which formalizes Brazil’s accession to the Budapest Treaty, was published in the Official Gazette on June 24. This move marks a significant shift in the intellectual property landscape for biotechnological inventions in the country.

From a biological standpoint, the Budapest Treaty simplifies the requirement to deposit microorganisms — a crucial step for patent applications involving living organisms. Previously, Brazilian innovators working with microbial strains were essentially required to send their samples to recognized international collections, incurring costs, logistical hurdles, and confidentiality concerns.

With the country’s adherence to the treaty, it will now be possible to make such deposits within Brazil, provided a national depository authority is accredited. This change brings relief to Brazilian researchers and companies, and also enhances the country’s appeal for international investment in the biotech sector, aligning Brazil with practices adopted by more than 80 countries.

From a legal perspective, this is a procedural streamlining already foreseen in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). In addition to simplifying the process, it reduces technical disputes over descriptive sufficiency and enables the examination of complex applications with greater legal certainty.

However, important questions remain:

Which Brazilian institution will be accredited as the International Depositary Authority (IDA)?

Will we have a public, private, or hybrid structure for the receipt, storage, and preservation of these samples?

While we await these definitions, we celebrate this development as another step toward strengthening science, the bioeconomy, and national technological innovation.