Patent registration in Kuwait. Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in Western Asia. Kuwait has been classified as a “potential middle power” by the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. Furthermore, Kuwait is a founding member of the GCC and a major non-NATO ally to the United States. Kuwait also has strong economic ties to China and ASEAN. 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 Kuwait.
Patent in Kuwait
According to Kuwait Law, a patent in Kuwait is a grant of a property right given by the Government to an inventor. With a patent, the inventor, or the patentee will have the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling the invention in a country, or importing the invention into a country, along with other rights to protect their best interests.
To be patentable in Kuwait, an invention must satisfy the new, nonobvious, inventive, and industrially applicable requirements.
In addition, an invention that is patentable can also be an improvement on existing items or methods.
On the other hand, the unpatentable subjects in Kuwait are:
- Discoveries, laws of nature, and mathematical methods;
- Aesthetic designs;
- Systems, rules, and methods for the performance of mental labor, games or management, computer programs;
- Presentation of data and abstract ideas.
Currently, there is no novelty grace period in Kuwait. Therefore, it should be understood that the novelty requirement for a patent is absolute in this jurisdiction.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Kuwait
The necessary documents for patent registration in Kuwait include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s and inventor’s names, addresses, citizenships, etc.;
- A description of the invention;
- A signed and stamped power of attorney by the applicant(s);
- A copy of the amendments (if any);
- Priority documents (if any).
- Other required documents.
The official language of a patent application in Kuwait is Arabic. However, the applicant may file the application in English along with a translation of the necessary documents into Arabic within 3 months from the filing date.
The procedure for patent registration in Kuwait
To obtain a patent in Kuwait, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Kuwait – The Patent Office of Kuwait.
According to the law of Kuwait, there is currently no kind of regulations on the examination of the application.
Therefore, both formality examination and substantive examination are not stipulated.
In practice, however, the examiners at the IP Office of Kuwait have recently started to examine patent applications.
Still, there is no specific time frame for examining and granting patents and the overall time for the registration of a patent application.
The applications filed in Kuwait are officially considered evidence of ownership. Priority date will be counted from the filing date when the examination commences.
Validity and maintenance
After the procedures have been conducted, the patent in Kuwait will be granted and is valid for 20 years from the filing date.
Although there are no examinations stipulated, the annuities or maintenance fees must still be paid yearly.
Annuities should be paid at the beginning of each year starting from the 2nd year until the end of the protection period.
Kuwait is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC). Therefore, the applicant may consider obtaining protection for their innovation through the patent registration process with the GCC Patent Office which is located in Saudi Arabia.
A GCC certificate will protect the patent in all member countries including Kuwait. The GCC Countries consist of the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sultanate of Oman, State of Qatar, and the State of Kuwait.
You can see a list of Kuwait IP firms here.