Patent registration in Portugal. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe. Portugal has left a profound cultural, architectural and linguistic influence across the globe, with a legacy of around 250 million Portuguese speakers, and many Portuguese-based creoles. It is a developed country with an advanced economy and high living standards. Additionally, it ranks highly in peacefulness, democracy, press freedom, stability, social progress, and prosperity. 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 Portugal.
Patent in Portugal
According to Portugal law, a patent in Portugal 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 Portugal, 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 Portugal 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 Portugal
The necessary documents for patent registration in Portugal 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 Portugal
To obtain a patent in Portugal, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Portugal.
After examination, the patent will be granted to the applicant.
A patent in Portugal will have a 20 years protection period. However, this period may be extended to an additional 5 years for the protection conferred by a patent for a particular product, medicinal or plant protection product through a Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC).
The applicant should closely monitor the registration process to check the status and answers the request by the IP Office in time.
It should be noted that this protection is only within the jurisdiction of Portugal.
If the applicant wants to expand the protection scope, they must register their patent through the PCT.
Registering through the PCT not only grants protection in Portugal but also to every contracting state of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT. The PCT is managed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
The international application allows for a single patent application, valid for several countries, in a single language, and with a single publication.
You can see a list of Portugal IP firms here.