Patent registration in Sweden. Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a country in Northern Europe. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens. It has the world’s eleventh-highest per capita income and ranks very highly in quality of life, health, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, income equality, gender equality, prosperity, and human development. 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 Sweden.
Patent in Sweden
According to Sweden 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 Sweden, an invention must satisfy the requirement of new, inventive, and industrially applicability.
The novelty grace period is not stipulated by the Swedish patent legislation. Therefore, it should be understood that the exposure of the invention in public will invalidate the patent application.
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 Sweden 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 Sweden
The necessary documents for patent registration in Sweden 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 Sweden
To obtain a patent in Sweden, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Sweden.
After receiving the patent application, the examiners at the IP Office will conduct a formality examination as well as a substantive examination to check if the patent is registrable under Swedish law or not.
The substantive examination is conducted automatically without the need to file a separate request.
After examination, the applicant will be granted the patent with 20-year validity.
To maintain this validity, the patentee needs to pay annuities that began in the third year. The payment must also be made if the application is still in the pending process.
The time to pay the annuities annually is before the due date of the last day of the anniversary month, which includes the date of the filing day.
Late payment is possible within a grace period of 6 months after the due date with a 20% surcharge.
You can see the list of Sweden IP Firms here.