Patent registration in Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Kitts and Nevis, officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country in the West Indies. Saint Kitts and Nevis is a twin-island federation whose economy is characterized by its dominant tourism, agriculture, and light manufacturing industries. St. Kitts and Nevis are heavily dependent upon tourism to drive its economy, a sector that has expanded significantly since the 1970s. 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 Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Patent in Saint Kitts and Nevis
According to Saint Kitts and Nevis law, a patent in this country 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 Saint Kitts and Nevis, 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 Saint Kitts and Nevis 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 Saint Kitts and Nevis
The necessary documents for patent registration in Saint Kitts and Nevis 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 Saint Kitts and Nevis
To obtain a patent in Saint Kitts and Nevis, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Saint Kitts and Nevis – the Registrar of the Intellectual Property Office (“IPO”).
The system for patent registration in this jurisdiction hasn’t yet been validated until mid-2020.
Before, the IP Office did receive patent applications and provided the applicants with a stamped copy of the application as evidence of filing, but the examination process was not put into processing. Now, the stored applications are being examined one by one.
Once the examinations are completed, the applicant will receive the patent.
The patentee will then have exclusive rights over the patent invention, including the right to force patent infringers to stop their actions.
A patent in this country has a 20 years protection period from the filing date. To maintain the validity, the patentee needs to pay the annual fee every year. If they miss the deadline, there is a grace period of 6 months after the deadline to submit the missing fees, along with a stipulated fine.
You can see a list of Saint Kitts and Nevis IP firms here.