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On 6 March 2022, the Kingdom of Bahrain enacted the modification (the “Modification”) to the GCC Patents Legislation as carried out in Bahrain beneath Legislation No. (1) of 2004 (as amended), and extra not too long ago by advantage of Legislation No. (6) of 2022, which was printed in Subject No. 3592 of the Official Gazette dated 10 March 2022.
The intention to amend the GCC Patents Legislation extends again to final yr wherein the GCC Member States authorised the Modification within the Ula Summit held in Saudi Arabia on 5 January 2021.
‘Outsourcing’ of Patent Purposes
The outsourcing of patent purposes to particular person GCC Members States’ patent workplaces is probably the most outstanding change launched by the Modification. In essence, the Modification seeks to abolish the idea of a single patent being enforceable throughout the GCC, the place in previously, the GCC Patent Workplace positioned in Riyadh could be receiving, inspecting and granting purposes independently of the nationwide patent workplace of the GCC state. This marks a transparent departure from the earlier ‘GCC-wide patent’ mannequin.
Delegating the processing and registration of patents to particular person nationwide workplaces doesn’t negate the position of the GCC Patent Workplace. Reasonably, it is going to obtain and deal with patent purposes, their prosecutions, examinations, and grants solely and individually for the GCC state(s) requests on behalf of their nationwide patent workplaces. Because of this the grant of a patent can be topic to approval from the requesting member state and solely legitimate in that state.
Because of the Modification, patent candidates might search GCC-wide enforcement of the patent by both of the next:
- Submitting a patent software in every GCC state through a Paris Conference software inside a twelve-month precedence interval; or
- Submitting a patent software in every GCC state through a PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) software inside a thirty-six month precedence interval.
Every of the six GCC states is a signatory to the Paris Conference and the PCT.
For the needs of the above, the primary patent software for an invention establishes ‘precedence’. Throughout the ‘precedence interval’, patent candidates have time to guage the industrial viability of the invention, proceed growing it if essential, and to resolve which different international locations to file patent purposes for a similar invention.
Adjustments in charges
The Modification has additionally modified the relevant charges which are payable within the means of submitting and registration of patents. Particular person candidates will notice that the preliminary patent software charge has been lowered to Saudi Riyals 1,500 henceforth firm candidates pay a charge of Saudi Riyals 3,000. Search charges have elevated tenfold such that particular person candidates are topic to a charge of Saudi Riyals 1,000 whereas a charge of Saudi Riyals 2,000 applies to firm candidates.
The content material of this text is meant to offer a normal information to the subject material. Specialist recommendation must be sought about your particular circumstances.
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