The latest Brazilian ranking of intellectual property filings, which includes patents, trademarks, software, industrial designs, and utility models, showed a number of changes since previous editions, as announced by the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). For patent filings by residents (submitted by companies, universities, and individuals based in Brazil), last year’s figure was the highest on record, surpassing the number reached before the pandemic: there were 5,740 filings in 2024, 767 more than in the previous year. This is higher than the peaks recorded in 2017 (5,437) and 2019 (5,451).
There was also a change at the top of the list, with car manufacturer Stellantis, owner of the Fiat, Chrysler, Peugeot, and Citroën brands, rising to the top of the list. The automaker, which increased its investment in technological innovation, bumped Petrobras down to second place in the ranking by filing 185 patent applications in Brazil in 2024, more than triple the number it filed in 2023 (58), when it placed third. In March, the company opened its TechMobility Hybrid-Flex Mobility & Product Development Center, the objective of which is to develop solutions that contribute to the decarbonization of the automotive sector. Some 400 engineers were hired to work at the complex in Betim, Minas Gerais. The Brazilian top 10 includes one individual inventor: metallurgical engineer Artur Camposo Pereira, a professor at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) who filed 60 patents in 2024 related to automotive armor.
The number of nonresident patent applications, filed by companies and institutions abroad to protect their intellectual property in Brazil, has fallen. There were 19,322 filings in 2024, compared to 20,396 in 2023, still well below the 25,000 annual filings recorded between 2012 and 2015. The majority of nonresident applicants are from the USA (32%). China is second, with 14%. In Europe, the majority were from institutions based in Germany (8%), France (6%), and Switzerland (6%). Japan (8%) and South Korea (6%) also recorded significant numbers. The top spot on the nonresident list is taken by Qualcomm, an American cell phone chip manufacturer, with 1,002 patent applications, just over triple the 330 applications made by the second-placed company, China’s Huawei, which produces network and telecommunications equipment. British company Nicoventures Trading, which supplies tobacco-free nicotine products, completes the top 3 with 223 filings.
“While resident patents are an indicator of the country’s internal technological capacity, nonresident patent requests reflect how attractive our market is considered by foreign companies,” explains economist Eduardo da Motta e Albuquerque, a researcher at the Center for Regional Development and Planning (CEDEPLAR) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). “The number of patents held by nonresidents in Brazil is equivalent to 10% of the number registered in the USA, which gives an idea of the size and attractiveness of the two markets.” According to his analysis, the data on resident patents can be interpreted in two ways. “There has been no decline in relation to the position occupied by the country over the last two decades, which is good news. On the other hand, we haven’t seen the leaps forward in Brazilian innovation on the international landscape that we would like to see,” he says.
The economist is concerned about Petrobras’s long-standing dominance at the top of the resident patents ranking and the presence of six Brazilian universities among the top 10. “It would be good to see a greater number of private companies and more diverse sectors among patent applicants, which would show that the country’s economy is becoming more innovative,” he says. The federal universities of Campina Grande (UFCG), Paraíba (UFPB), and Minas Gerais (UFMG) are third, fourth, and fifth respectively in the resident patents list. The best-ranked higher education institution in São Paulo is the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), in sixth place. The University of São Paulo (USP) appears in 10th. Albuquerque notes that it is also common for universities to file patent applications in the USA. “The University of California, for example, filed 540 patent applications in 2024 alone, but it doesn’t even appear in the USA’s top 20 because there are so many companies doing more when it comes to protecting intellectual property,” he states.
The patent data offer an insight into the more technology-intensive side of innovative activities in Brazil, but they do not reveal the full picture. The INPI is also responsible for registering other forms of intellectual property protection, such as trademarks (names or images that identify a product or service), utility models (innovations that modify and increase the efficiency of existing products), and software, whose rankings demonstrate more significant changes. “While the top of the list of resident patent applications is largely composed of public institutions, trademark registration is dominated by private companies that use intellectual property to differentiate themselves in the market and increase their competitiveness,” says Rodrigo Vieira Ventura, chief economist at INPI and coordinator of the rankings.
First in the list of resident trademark filings is Wepink, an online cosmetics store owned by social media and TV personality Virginia Fonseca, with a total of 281 applications. Next is Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (with 210) and the television networks Globo (205) and SBT (190). “In addition to product licensing, Palmeiras has been using trademark registration to promote shows and events at its arena in São Paulo,” explains Ventura. Albuquerque, from UFMG, notes that there are signs of the strength of different economic sectors in the trademark rankings. “The presence of the entertainment industry, through major television networks, is one of them. But you can also see the power of the cosmetics industry, with 81 trademark applications from Boticário, and the medical-industrial complex, with generic drug manufacturers such as Eurofarma and Hypera appearing in the ranking.”
Evangelical churches have also been using trademark registration to license and sell products. The Pentecostal church Deus é Amor made 84 applications in 2024, while the Baptist church Lagoinha filed 82. An emerging economic activity also appears on the list of nonresidents: four foreign gambling and betting companies filed trademark applications in 2024.
The story above was published with the title “Trademarks and patents” in issue 353 of July/2025.
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