The Argentine Patent Office has issued Resolution 142/2026, introducing an important amendment to the procedural framework established under Resolution 56/2016 regarding accelerated patent examination based on corresponding foreign applications.
As background, Resolution 56/2016 allows patent applicants in Argentina to voluntarily rely on granted claims from corresponding foreign patent applications in order to facilitate and potentially streamline substantive examination before the Argentine Patent Office, provided that certain requirements are met.
Under the previous regime, applicants could only request the application of Resolution 56/2016 before substantive examination had commenced. Resolution 142/2026 significantly expands this possibility by allowing applicants to invoke the mechanism at any stage of prosecution prior to the final decision, even after substantive examination has already started.
This amendment provides applicants with increased strategic flexibility, as it enables them to assess the evolution of prosecution both in Argentina and abroad before deciding whether to rely on granted foreign claims. In practice, this may be particularly useful in situations where favorable examination results or granted claims in foreign jurisdictions become available only after examination has already begun in Argentina.
The remaining requirements established under Resolution 56/2016 continue to apply. Among other conditions:
- the Argentine claims must be equal to or narrower than the granted foreign claims;
- there must be no Argentine prior art affecting novelty;
- the claimed subject matter must not fall within excluded patentable subject matter;
- any third-party observations or oppositions must have been evaluated by the Examiner;
- the foreign Patent Office involved must apply patentability standards equivalent to those applied in Argentina; and
- the corresponding official fee must be paid.
The amendment introduced by Resolution 142/2026 may create additional opportunities for applicants seeking to optimize prosecution strategies for pending patent applications in Argentina, particularly in coordination with developments in foreign jurisdictions.