Patent registration in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz Republic, commonly known as Kyrgyzstan, is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is a member of the Commonwealth of the Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Turkic Council, the Türksoy community, and the United Nations. The country’s transition economy is heavily dependent on oil and natural gas along with deposits of gold, coal, and uranium. 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 Kyrgyzstan.
Patent in Kyrgyzstan
According to Kyrgyzstan Law, a patent in Kyrgyzstan 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 Kyrgyzstan, 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 Kyrgyzstan 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.
The novelty grace period of Kyrgyzstan is 12 months. This means that if the disclosure of the invention is made public within 12 months from the filing date of the patent application which has the invention as the subject, the patent application won’t be invalidated.
The disclosure can be made by the applicant or a third party that directly or indirectly obtained the information about the invention.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Kyrgyzstan
The necessary documents for patent registration in Kyrgyzstan 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.
To claim priority, the applicant needs to file their patent application within 12 months from the filing date. This term can be extended for 2 months provided that the applicant can prove that the unable to comply within the stipulated time is unintentional.
The official languages of the Kyrgyzstani patent application are Kyrgyz and Russian. The application can be made in other languages provided that the translation of that language is submitted within 3 months from the filing date.
The procedure of patent registration in Kyrgyzstan
To obtain a patent in Kyrgyzstan, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Kyrgyzstan.
The patent application will undergo a formality examination to check if it complies with the regulations of the law.
Under the Kyrgyzstan law, a substantive examination is not stipulated.
Therefore, if needed, the applicant may file a request for the substantive examination.
If the applicant is content with only the formality examination, they may proceed with the request for a grant based on the result of the formality examination.
If no request is made within 30 months from the filing date, the application is considered withdrawn.
To be able to receive a grant, the applicant needs to pay the official fees within 2 months from the date of receipt of the decision to grant a patent.
To maintain the validity of the patent, the patentee will need to pay the annuities yearly, starting from the 3rd year that should be paid along with the payment of official fees.
The next annuities are counted from the filing date and are paid before the beginning of the following year.
You can see a list of Kyrgyzstan IP firms here.