BRAZIL Law and Practice Contributed by: Ana Paula Affonso Brito and Maria Eduarda de O Borrelli Junqueira, Montaury Pimenta, Machado & Vieira de Mello
judgment. Once the Court of Appeals schedules the judgment session, the parties prepare sum - mary briefs to be personally discussed with the judges designated for the judgment and to pre - sent oral arguments in the judgment session. The judgment session will be before a panel of three judges. The decision can be unanimous, or not. In the case of 2:1 votes, an extended session will be scheduled and two other judges will join the panel, so that there is a casting vote. Once the panel has issued the vote, the deci - sion will be published and the parties can file a motion for clarification within five days of the publication and/or file a special appeal to the Superior Court of Justice questioning the appli - cability of the federal law. In the case of consti - tutional matters, it is possible to offer an extraor - dinary appeal to the Supreme Court. However, for patent matters, this would be quite unusual. If a preliminary injunction or final injunction decision is overturned on appeal or the patent is revoked, the preliminary injunction will not automatically be lifted and the interested party must submit a brief asking for it to be lifted/ revoked. An interested party might evaluate the best strategic moment to submit a brief, but this can be done at any time before the judge who first issued the injunction. 7.2 Appeal Court(s) Arbiter Infringement matters are discussed in state courts and the final decision is appealable to the correspondent State Court of Appeals. Nullity lawsuits are discussed in federal courts and the final decision is appealable to the Federal Circuit of Appeal, which can cover more than one state. In both cases, the appeal is addressed to a panel of three judges but a rapporteur judge will be
in charge of receiving the appeal, analysing a potential injunction claim and re-preparing the main vote that will be presented in the judgment session. The decision can be unanimous, or not. In the case of 2:1 votes, an extended session will be scheduled and two other judges will join the panel, so that there is a casting vote. 7.3 Special Provisions IP lawsuits, including those for life sciences and pharma, are subject to civil and criminal pro - ceedings that are guided by the Civil and Crimi - nal Proceeding Codes. There are some specific rules in the Industrial Property Act, Federal Law No 9279/96, that discuss injunctions, bonds and damages criteria, but such provisions are all grounded on the general legal system applied to all types of lawsuits. Officials using anti-counterfeiting measures at customs in ports and airports in Brazil will gen - erally contact the patentee to take suitable legal measures when there is a notice of infringement. 9. Alternative Dispute Resolution 9.1 ADR Options Arbitration, conciliation and mediation are all available in Brazil. However, patentees in life sci - ences disputes do not use these ADR options, preferring to address the discussion in a lawsuit where the ordinary provisions of injunction and damages will apply. 8. Other Relevant Forums/ Procedures 8.1 The UPC or Other Forums
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