– Law No. 9.609/98, Brazilian Computer Software Law, providing for the protection of intellectual property in computer software, its commercialization and other areas.
– Decree No. 2556 of April 20, 1998, detailing the rules and procedures for the registration of software at the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI).
– Law No. 9.610/98, Brazilian Author’s Rights Law. In case of omission of Law No. 9.609/98, Law No. 9.610/98 shall be applied.
– Resolution No. 57 passed by the National Copyright Council on July 6, 1988, appointing the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) as the governmental agency responsible for the registration of software works.
– Law No. 8248/91, providing for the capacity and competitiveness on the computer industry and automation.
– Law No. 10.176/2001, modifying essential aspects of Law No. 8248/91, Law No. 8.387/91 and Decree No. 288/67, in connection with capacity and competitiveness on the computer industry and automation.
– Law No. 8.387/91, modifying some aspects related to taxes incentives in computer industry and automation.
– Law No. 11.077/2004, modifying some aspects of Law No. 8.248/91, Law No. 8.387/91 and Law No. 10.176/2001, regarding capacity and competitiveness on the computer industry and automation.
– Law No. 12.737/2012, amending the Criminal Code and creating specific criminal sanctions against computer or other information system invasion; credit card cloning and harassing of telecommunication or other data flow systems.
– Law No. 12.965/2014, stipulating concepts, protection, rights and obligations concerning the use of Internet, including protection of consumer’s data on the Internet. This law is commonly referred to as “Internet Civil Mark”.
– Resolution PR No. 61 issued on March 18, 2013, concerning the application for registration of computer programs and the proceedings related to the numbering of such applications.
– Resolution No. 200 issued on September 4, 2017, detailing the fees for remuneration of the services of registration of computer programs, electronically.
– Normative Act No. 099/2019 issued by the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in February 2019, establishing rules and proceedings regarding the registration of computer programs and the electronic form.
– User Guide for the Electronic Register of Computer Programs, detailing the procedures instituted by Resolution No. 099.

– Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Decree No. 75.699 of May 6, 1975.
– Geneva Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, Decree No. 76.905 of December 24, 1975.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, internalized into the Brazilian Legal System by Decree No. 1.355 of December 30, 1994.
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), since August 14, 2016.

Protection: computer programs fall under the concept of creative effort, and are therefore subject to protection by copyright, under Law No. 9,609, dated February 19, 1998 (Software Law). In light of this fact, registration of software with INPI is not essential in order to constitute such right. The Software Law guarantees the creator ownership over the software from the moment of its development, regardless of any registration or recordal with public governmental Offices.  However, there is a positive, practical effect to registering software with INPI, as such registration is declaratory in nature and serves as evidence of the author of the registered software. In other words, it is efficient proof in cases where the ownership of a software program or its infringement by third parties is questioned.

Filing requirements: in order to register a software program, INPI requires that the applicant submits information that, in the author’s judgment, is sufficient to characterize an independent creation, containing sufficient passage pages from the program’s print out to demonstrate the origin and the creation of said programs and to prove, in future, that the software as a whole originated from and is linked to the passages provided for registration.

As from the issuance of Normative Act No. 099/2019, the application for registration of software at INPI must be submitted exclusively electronically, by the e-Software electronic form (e-RPC electronic form).

All required technical documentation must be sent to INPI in hash format, the applicant being solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of the information, as well as its transformation into such format, without prejudice to third parties’ rights and the responsibility of the Federal Government.

The e-Software electronic form includes:
1. Name of the author or authors, in addition to his/her/their respective full address(es), telephone number(s), e-mail address(es) and individual taxpayer identification number(s);
2. Name, full address, telephone number, e-mail address and corporate taxpayer identification number of the party that will hold the ownership rights over the software;
3. Software’s date of publication and, in the absence of such date, the date of its creation;
4. Software’s title;
5. At least one indication of the programming language used to develop the program;
6. At least one indication of the “type of program” and one of the “field of application”, according to INPI’s classifications;
7. The document entitled Declaration of Veracity, to be digitally executed and certified in accordance with the certification procedure of the Brazilian Information Technology Institute (ICP-Brasil);
8. Identification of the algorithm or function hash used for the encryption of the confidential information;
9. Text of the summary hash originated by the algorithm adopted in the above item as an authentication element;
10. Information on the derivation authorized by the owner, in cases where the application for registration of a computer program is derived from another;
11. Name of the attorney, the respective address and corporate taxpayer identification number, when applicable;
12. Power of attorney, to be digitally executed and certified in accordance with the certification procedure of the Brazilian Information Technology Institute (ICP-Brasil), when applicable;
13. If the party that holds the ownership rights over the software is other than its author, the applicant must also submit documents that prove the assignment of such rights, such as a labor agreement, service agreement or a copyright assignment.

Notes: the title of the computer program may not be descriptive or evocative of the functions performed by the software. It will also be necessary to indicate whether the software was composed by another intellectual nature, if so, whether literary, musical, visual arts, audiovisual, architecture or engineering nature.

Duration – renewals: copyright subsists for fifty years, counted from the first day of January of the year subsequent to either the year in which it was published or, if unpublished, the year in which it was created. 

Remittance of payments: notwithstanding the fact that no regulation has been made in relation to this subject, remittance may be effected through authorized banks, without the requirement of prior registration with the Central Bank, by means of presentation of the acts, invoices or license agreements regarding the computer programs. These should include the taxes and charge receipts, payment responsibilities and computer program holder's remuneration. 

Know-how: if a contract involving software includes the delivery of the source code and other technical reports and documents related to the software, it is deemed to involve transfer of know-how and, consequently, it becomes subject to recordal at INPI in order to produce effect with respect to third parties.