Patent registration in Serbia. Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a landlocked country in Central and Southeast Europe. Serbia is an upper-middle-income economy, ranked 64th and “very high” in the Human Development Index domain. It is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, a member of the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC, CEFTA, AIIB, and is acceding to the WTO. Since 2014, the country has been negotiating its EU accession, with the aim of joining the European Union by 2025. 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 Serbia.
Patent in Serbia
According to Serbia 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 Serbia, 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.
The novelty grace period in Serbia is 6 months.
On the other hand, the subjects that are unpatentable in Serbia 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 Serbia
The necessary documents for patent registration in Serbia 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 official language of the Serbian patent application is Serbian.
The applicant can choose to file the patent application in other language but a Serbian translation must be provided to the IP Office within 2 months from the filing date.
The procedure for patent registration in Serbia
To obtain a patent in Serbia, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Serbia.
The IP Office examines whether the application meets the formality requirements that are stipulated in the Patent Law of Serbia.
If the requirement is met, the application will be published in the Official Gazette and online at the address: http://pub.zis.gov.rs/rs-pubserver/search.jsp?lg=en.
Next, the applicant should file a request for substantive examination within 6 months from the publication date.
If there are no errors, the patent will be granted to the applicant provided that the official fee for granting has been paid in full.
A patent in Serbia has a 20 years validity period from the filing date.
Annual maintenance fees should be paid annually from the third year and even when the patent application is still pending in the case that the pending period lasts more than 3 years.
The grace period for the payment of maintenance fees is 6 months.
You can see a list of Serbia IP firms here.