Patent registration in Paraguay. Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a country in South America. Paraguay is a developing country. It is a founding member of Mercosur, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the Lima Group. Additionally, the city of Luque, in metropolitan Asuncion, is the seat of the South American Football Confederation. Despite a history of poverty and political repression, in a 2017 Positive Experience Index based on global polling data, Paraguay ranked as the “world’s happiest place”. 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 Paraguay.
Patent in Paraguay
According to Paraguay law, a patent in Paraguay 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.
In Paraguay, process patents and product patents are the two types of patents that can be protected. The types of patent applications that can be filed in this jurisdiction are Non-Convention Application, Divisional Application, and Patent of Addition.
To be patentable in Paraguay, an invention must satisfy the new, nonobvious, inventive, and industrially applicable requirements.
In addition, a patentable invention can also be an improvement on existing items or methods.
On the other hand, the unpatentable subjects in Paraguay 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 Paraguay
The necessary documents for patent registration in Paraguay 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 Paraguay
To obtain a patent in Paraguay, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Paraguay – National Directorate of Intellectual Property.
After the examination, the patent application is available for opposition actions. However, Paraguay law is different than other countries in the mean that there are no official opposition actions.
Instead, third parties can only file observations to detail their point of view towards the registration of the innovation.
The observations must be filed within 60 days from the publication date, no matter first, second, or third. The observations, although limited, may have a serious impact on the entire registration process.
If there are no errors or the problems have been resolved, the patent will be granted to the applicant and will have a 20 years protection period.
To maintain this validity, the patentee needs to pay annuities, meaning maintenance fees.
The payment of annuities must be made 12 months before the due date. There is a grace period of 6 months for the payment of annuities if the patentee somehow misses the deadline.
You can see a list of Paraguay IP Firms here.