A foreign brand owner discovers that a local party has been using a confusingly similar mark in Brazil for several years. The brand owner moves to assert its rights – only to find that courts now apply a sharper evidentiary standard and faster timelines than their legal team anticipated. Missing a procedural window at this stage can extinguish a claim that would otherwise succeed.
Brazilian intellectual property legislation has undergone a significant shift in how courts and the Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI – Brazil's national IP registry and enforcement authority) handle infringement claims and opposition proceedings. Rights holders with pending or planned IP registration or enforcement activity in Brazil must reassess their strategies and document their market presence before initiating proceedings. The relevant changes affect trademark application pipelines, opposition proceedings, and civil infringement litigation, with immediate implications for any business active in the Brazilian market.
This alert explains what has changed, which businesses are directly in scope, and the concrete steps international companies should take without delay.
What has changed in Brazilian IP enforcement
Brazilian courts and the INPI have converged on a stricter approach to several aspects of IP enforcement. Three developments stand out.
Stronger evidentiary demands in infringement claims. Courts across Brazil's principal commercial jurisdictions now require more granular proof of actual use and market presence before granting interim injunctions in trademark infringement cases. Applicants who previously relied on registration certificates alone are finding those submissions insufficient. Judges are scrutinising commercial invoices, advertising records, and consumer-facing materials to verify that the claimant genuinely occupies the market segment it seeks to protect.
Accelerated opposition proceedings at the INPI. The INPI has shortened the effective window for substantive oppositions during the trademark application examination phase. Opponents who fail to submit a complete evidentiary package within the published opposition period are being denied extensions that were previously available in practice. Under Brazilian intellectual property legislation, an opposition that is formally filed but insufficiently substantiated is treated as abandoned.
Expanded Nice classification scrutiny. Examiners are now applying Classificação de Nice (Nice classification) criteria more rigorously when assessing likelihood of confusion between marks in adjacent or overlapping classes. A trademark application covering broad class headings is being construed narrowly at examination. This means rights holders who filed wide specifications years ago may find their protection is interpreted more restrictively in current enforcement proceedings than they assumed.
These shifts do not reflect a single legislative amendment with a fixed effective date. They represent an evolving body of administrative and judicial practice that has consolidated noticeably since mid-2024 and continues to develop. Companies that calibrated their Brazil IP strategy under previous, more permissive norms are now exposed to gaps they may not have anticipated. For AI-related IP considerations in Brazil, see our analysis of AI and technology law in Brazil, where similar evidentiary issues arise in the context of algorithmic works and software patents.
Who is affected and the compliance threshold
The developments described above affect a broad range of international businesses. The following categories face the most direct exposure.
- Companies with pending trademark applications at the INPI in any Nice classification class, particularly those filed before 2023 using broad class headings.
- Rights holders who rely on registered marks in Brazil without maintaining current evidence of commercial use in the local market.
- Businesses that have identified local infringers but have not yet initiated an infringement claim or opposition proceedings.
- Technology and consumer goods companies expanding into Brazil whose IP registration strategies were designed for other jurisdictions.
The threshold for immediate action is straightforward: if your business holds or is seeking IP rights in Brazil. Alternatively. If you sell goods or services in the Brazilian market under a brand, these developments are directly relevant. Inaction carries a concrete cost. A rights holder who delays substantiating its market presence risks losing an opposition, having an injunction refused, or – in the most serious cases – facing a non-use cancellation challenge from a competitor.
To receive an expert assessment of your IP portfolio's exposure in Brazil, contact us at info@ferrazwhitmore.com.
Immediate action items for international companies
The following steps should be addressed as a matter of priority. Each addresses a specific vulnerability created by the current enforcement conditions in Brazil.
1. Audit pending trademark applications. Review every trademark application at the INPI for adequacy of the Nice classification specification. Where specifications rely on broad class headings, consider filing supplementary submissions or divisional applications to protect the most commercially critical goods and services with precision.
2. Compile and preserve use evidence now. Assemble a contemporaneous record of commercial use in Brazil: invoices addressed to Brazilian counterparties, local advertising materials, screenshots of Brazilian-facing digital channels with timestamps, and distribution agreements. Courts and the INPI will require this evidence before granting relief. Collecting it retroactively under time pressure increases error risk.
3. Monitor for conflicting applications actively. The INPI publishes new trademark applications in its official gazette. International companies without a local monitoring arrangement are frequently the last to learn that a competitor – or a bad-faith filer – has submitted a conflicting application. The opposition window is strict; missing it forfeits the right to challenge the application at the administrative level. Engaging a lawyer in Brazil with active monitoring capacity is the most reliable protection against this risk.
4. Reassess pending or planned infringement claims. If your business has identified an infringer but has not yet commenced proceedings, review the evidentiary package against the current judicial standard before filing. An infringement claim submitted with insufficient use evidence is likely to fail at the interim injunction stage, alerting the infringer and potentially prejudicing a subsequent, better-prepared action. As a law firm advising on Brazil IP matters, Ferraz & Whitmore recommends a formal evidence audit before any enforcement filing.
5. Review cross-border enforcement strategy. For companies enforcing rights that were first established in other jurisdictions, consider how Brazilian courts are treating foreign registrations as part of the evidentiary record. Local registration and demonstrable Brazilian market presence remain the strongest foundation for an infringement claim. Companies relying on the parallel enforcement developments in the United States should note that the US and Brazilian systems differ substantially on the weight given to foreign registration in domestic proceedings.
Our full analysis of the intellectual property enforcement regime in Brazil covers the procedural architecture of INPI proceedings and civil litigation in detail.
About Ferraz & Whitmore
Ferraz & Whitmore is an international law firm based in Lisbon, advising business clients across 46 jurisdictions. Our team combines Portuguese civil law expertise with English common law tradition to deliver cross-border legal solutions in intellectual property protection, IP registration strategy, and enforcement across Latin American and Iberian markets. Our international counsel advises technology companies, consumer brands, and institutional investors on trademark application management, opposition proceedings, and infringement claims across civil law systems, including before Brazilian administrative and judicial authorities. As a law firm in Brazil and Iberian matters, we work with in-house legal teams who need practical, results-oriented counsel across multiple legal systems. To discuss your IP exposure in Brazil, contact us at info@ferrazwhitmore.com.
Disclaimer: This publication is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The information herein should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel tailored to your specific circumstances. Ferraz & Whitmore assumes no liability for actions taken or not taken based on the contents of this material. For advice regarding your particular situation, please contact info@ferrazwhitmore.com.
Published: March 19, 2026 | Author: Marco Reyes, International Counsel, Americas & Iberian Markets