Patent registration in Luxembourg. Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. Luxembourg’s stable and high-income market economy features moderate growth, low inflation, and a high level of innovation. In addition, this country’s unemployment rate is traditionally low. 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 Luxembourg.
Patent in Luxembourg
To be patentable in this country, an invention must meet the requirements of novelty, inventiveness, and industrial applicability.
On the other hand, the subjects that are not patentable in Luxembourg are:
- discoveries, scientific theories, and mathematical methods;
- purely aesthetic creations;
- plans, principles, and methods for intellectual activities, playing games or in the field of economic activity as well as computer programs;
- information presentation;
- methods of medical treatment for humans or animals (in contrast to medical products);
- animal or plant varieties as well as essentially biological procedures used to obtain plants or animals, with the exclusion of microbiological procedures and products obtained via these procedures.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Luxembourg
The necessary documents for patent registration in Luxembourg 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 procedure for patent registration in Luxembourg
To obtain a patent in Luxembourg, the applicant needs to file a patent application to the IP Office of Luxembourg.
Within 18 months from the filing date, a request for a search report or a validation request for a search report must be submitted to the European Patent Office.
It should be noted that the search report requirement is extremely important if the applicant wants to have a longer period of protection for their invention.
At the moment, the Luxembourg law doesn’t have any regulations on opposition proceedings. However, other parties may also express their disagreement or objection to the registration of the invention under a number of grounds.
Validity protection for a patent
As mentioned above, the search report is extremely important in the patent registration process in this country.
If there is no search report request, the maximum protection for a patent in Luxembourg is 6 years.
If there is a search report, the patent can be protected up to 20 years from the filing date.
A patent is published publicly in Luxembourg for all parties. In exchange for that publicity, the patentee will have the right to prevent others to infringe upon the rights of the patentee for a set period of years.
Other means to obtain patent protection
Besides the national filing method, the applicant may also seek other means to obtain patent protection in this jurisdiction.
For one, they can file through the European Patent Office to acquire protection in all of the European countries, including Luxembourg.
They can also file through the PCT – Patent Cooperation Treaty to seek protection for over 130 countries that are members of the PCT.
You can see a list of Luxembourg IP firms here.