Patent registration in Lebanon. Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. Lebanon is a developing country, ranking 92nd on the Human Development Index and among the highest in the Arab world outside of the oil-rich economies of the Persian Gulf. It has been classified as an upper-middle-income state. Despite the country’s small size, Lebanese culture is renowned both in the Middle East and globally, primarily powered by its extensive diaspora. 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 Lebanon.
Patent in Lebanon
According to Lebanon Patent Law, a patent in Lebanon 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.
Currently, there is no novelty grace period provision in Lebanon.
To be patentable in Lebanon, 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 Lebanon 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.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Lebanon
The necessary documents for patent registration in Lebanon 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 patent application’s official language in Lebanon is Arabic. However, the applicant may file the patent application in another language provided that the language is French and English. Other languages will require a translation into Arabic.
If the applicant wants to claim priority, they will need to file the patent application claiming priority within 12 months from the priority date. It should be noted that the restoration of this deadline is not possible.
The certified copy of the priority document must be submitted to the Patent Office within 3 months from the filing date.
The procedure of patent registration in Lebanon
To obtain a patent in Lebanon, the applicant needs to file the patent application to the IP Office of Lebanon.
The examiners at the IP Office will conduct a formality examination to check if the application complies with the regulations of the law and it is patentable.
Currently, the IP Law of Lebanon doesn’t have any regulations on substantive examination. Therefore, a formality examination is qualified.
There is also no provision for the opposing procedure.
If there are no errors in the formality examinations, the patent application will be issued within 60 days from the filing date.
The applicant will need to pay the official fees. After payment, the date of payment will be considered as the date of granting.
A patent in Lebanon is valid within 20 years from the date of registration. An annuity fee is payable on the anniversary of the acceptance date. There is a 6-month grace period for the late payment of the annuities, provided that a surcharge is paid.
Notes of the patent filing procedure in Lebanon
Normally, the entire patent registration process in Lebanon will take about 2 weeks, significantly lower compared to the patent registration process in other countries.
The protection of the invention as a utility model in Lebanon is not possible.
Lebanon is not a member of PCT. Therefore, the applicants can’t choose the patent registration process through the PCT.
You can see a list of Lebanon IP Firms here.