Patent registration in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Caribbean island and unincorporated territory of the United States. The economy of Puerto Rico is classified as a high-income economy by the World Bank and as the most competitive economy in Latin America by the World Economic Forum. It is classified by the International Monetary Fund as a developed jurisdiction with an advanced, high-income economy. Furthermore, Puerto Rico ranks highly on the Human Development Index. 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 Puerto Rico.
Patent in Puerto Rico
According to Puerto Rico law, a patent in Puerto Rico 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 Puerto Rico, 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 Puerto Rico 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 Puerto Rico
The necessary documents for patent registration in Puerto Rico 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 Puerto Rico
To obtain a patent in Puerto Rico, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Puerto Rico.
However, currently, there is no legislation in Puerto Rico that provides for the registration of patents.
As this country is slowly, but arguably surely, becoming part of the United States (the 51st state), all proceedings related to the patent registration process in Puerto Rico will also be extended to the United States.
This means that to obtain a patent in Puerto Rico, the applicant should research the patent registration in the United States.
However, the merging might be long as there is a constant objection to the plan. Therefore, it’s best that the applicant registers their innovation in the US and it will automatically be expanded to Puerto Rico later.
Even if there are some procedures needed to be done to expand the patent protection scope to Puerto Rico, it will be way simpler than registering in this country in the first place.
You can see a list of Puerto Rico IP firms here.