Patent registration in Papua New Guinean. Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia (a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia). Most of the people of Papua live in strong traditional social groups based on farming. Their social lives combine traditional religion with modern practices, including primary education. 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 Papua New Guinea.
Patent in Papua New Guinea
According to Papua New Guinea law, a patent in Papua New Guinea 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 Papua New Guinea, 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 Papua New Guinea 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 Papua New Guinea
The necessary documents for patent registration in Papua New Guinea 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 Papua New Guinea
To obtain a patent in Papua New Guinea, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Papua New Guinea.
Without considering the patentability of the application, the examiners will conduct a formality examination to check if there are errors in the application or not that don’t comply with the regulations of the law of Papua New Guinea.
After that, an Examination Request notice will be issued.
The examination will include cross-examination on the subject of innovation in regards to the patent application of other foreign countries.
Given the delays in the processing of the Papua New Guinea Patent Office, a corresponding application will have been examined in at least 1 other jurisdiction by the time an Examination Request is issued provided that the applicant did file for more than just a country.
Once all the procedures have been reached and there are no errors detected, the patent application will be accepted and the patent will be granted soon thereafter to the applicant provided that the fees have been paid in full.
You can see a list of Papua New Guinea IP firms here.