Patent registration in Saint Lucia. Saint Lucia is an island country in the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. An educated workforce and improvements in roads, communications, water supply, sewerage, and port facilities have attracted foreign investment in tourism and in petroleum storage and transshipment in this country. Since then, Saint Lucia has been able to attract foreign business and investment, especially in its offshore banking and tourism industries, which is St. Lucia’s main source of revenue. 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 Lucia.
Patent in Saint Lucia
According to Saint Lucia 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 Lucia, an invention must satisfy the requirement of new, inventive, and industrially applicability.
In addition, an invention that is patentable can also be an improvement on existing items or methods.
On the other hand, the subjects that are patentable in Saint Lucia 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 Lucia
The necessary documents for patent registration in Saint Lucia include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s names, addresses, 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 Lucia
To obtain a patent in Saint Lucia, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Saint Lucia.
However, it should be noted that although the law on Patent – the Patents Act in Saint Lucia has been passed, the Regulations that give the Act effectiveness haven’t been passed at the moment.
Therefore, right now, Saint Lucia only accepts the patent application but hasn’t examined it yet.
The applicant can still register their invention in Saint Lucia through international application pursuant to the Commercial Code and Laws of Saint Lucia 1975, which provides for applications to extend rights under the registration obtained in the United Kingdom (UK).
According to Saint Lucia’s law, a local patent registration has a validity of 20 years and may be further extended. This also applies to the UK-based patent that has been extended to Saint Lucia.
The application for extension should be filed within six (06) months prior to the expiration date of the date of registration.
If following the PCT method, the application will also remain pending until the Patent Act comes into effect.
You can see a list of Saint Lucia IP firms here.