Patent registration in Algeria. Algeria, officially the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Algeria is a regional power in North Africa and a middle power in global affairs. It has the highest Human Development Index of all non-island African countries and one of the largest economies on the continent, based largely on energy exports. Algeria has the world’s sixteenth-largest oil reserves and the ninth-largest reserves of natural gas. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of patent registration in Algeria.
Patent in Algeria
A patent in Algeria is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of years in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Algeria
Necessary documents for patent registration in Algeria include the following documents:
- The patent application;
- Description of the invention;
- Declaration justifying the applicant’s right to the invention;
- A certified copy of the Priority Document;
- Simply signed original Power of Attorney;
- Verified French or Arabic translations of the necessary documents;
- Other required documents.
Requirement on the novelty grace period
According to Algeria law, the novelty grace period constitutes 12 months prior to the date of filing or priority date if the disclosure was made by the applicant or their predecessor in title, or resulted from a third party’s abuse in respect of the applicant or their predecessor in title.
The procedure of patent registration in Algeria
To obtain a patent in Algeria, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Algeria.
The application can be filed in French and Arabic. If originally filed in French, the IP Office of Algeria will request a translated copy into Arabic. The applicant and/or their representative must respond and submit the necessary documents within 60 days from the date of request.
Correspondence between the Office and the applicant is conducted in French only.
According to the Algeria IP law, patent applications are only subject to formal examination. However, International Search Report (if any) will be considered by the Algerian Patent Office.
Note:
Normally, the whole process of patent registration in Algeria will take about 5 years to complete. This period can extend or reduce according to the status at the IP Office of Algeria.
It is not possible to obtain utility model protection under the current IP legislation in Algeria.
Patent validity period
If there are no errors found in the examination period, the patent will be granted to the applicant.
The patent will have a validity period of 20 years from the filing date. The patentee needs to maintain the validity period annually by paying the prescribed fee.
Annuities are to be paid counting from the national filing date. If the patentee misses the deadline, he/she can still submit the maintenance fee within the 6-month grace period after the deadline along with a late payment fine.
Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), a patent is valid for 20 years starting from the international filing date of the application.
Like national filing, the patent obtained through PCT also needs an annual maintenance fee.
Annuities are to be paid counting from the international filing date. If the patentee misses the deadline, he/she can still submit the maintenance fee within the 6-month grace period after the deadline along with a late payment fine.
You can see a list of Algeria IP firms here.