Patents
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- Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, London Act, and Articles 13 to 30 Stockholm Act.
- Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since December 30, 1986.
- Lebanon is not member of PCT.
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- Power of attorney duly legalized up to a Lebanese consul.
- Name, address, nationality and activity of the applicant.
- Name, address, nationality and profession of the inventor(s).
- Specification, claims and abstract, in Arabic, English or French.
- Drawings, if any.
- Particulars of the basic patent application.
- Information whether the applicant requires the postponement of the publication of the letters patent to 18 months from the priority date.
- Priority document, to be filed within three months form the filling date. In case the priority document does not stand in the name of the applicant, a priority assignment legalized up to the Lebanese consul is also required within the above three months’ delay.
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- Types of patentable inventions: New industrial products, new industrial processes, new application of a known industrial product or process, a new combination of known industrial processes or means, microorganisms and new plant varieties.
- Types of patents: patents of invention only. Patents of addition have been abolished by the new patent law.
- Applicant: the inventor or his assignee.
- Industrial application: the invention is capable of industrial application if it is possible to manufacture or use the subject matter thereof in any kind of industry.
- Novelty: the invention should not have been available to the public at any place or date, whether by written or oral description, by use or by any other way, before the filing date or the priority date.
- Inventive activity: the invention shall be considered as implying an inventive step, if it is not obvious for a man skilled in the art to discover the invention on the grounds of the prior art.
- Exceptions to protection: scientific discoveries and principles; abstract mathematical methods having no industrial application; principles and methods pertaining to the exercise of purely intellectual activities, of games or economic and financial activities; therapeutic and diagnostic methods; inventions contrary to public order and morality.
- Pharmaceutical compositions and products for use in therapeutic and diagnostic methods are patentable.
- Computer software having an industrial application is patentable.
- New Plant varieties which differ from similar known species by one or more important and precise characteristic of little fluctuation are patentable provided that they are homogeneous and stable and meet the other patentability requirements.
- Priority: Claiming multiple and partial priorities is possible, at the time of filing or within a period of two months thereafter. The priority right may be assigned independently of the right to the grant of the patent.
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- Examination: A patent application is examined as to form, exceptions to protection and lack of unity.
- Timeframe: In case no official action is issued within 30 days, the application is considered as accepted and the letters patent may be issued within the following 60 days.
- Postponement of publication: The applicant may delay publication and issuance of the letters patent to 18 months from the earliest priority date.
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- Patentee’s rights: A patent shall confer on its owner exclusive exploitation rights, particularly:(a) where the subject matter of an invention is a product, the exclusive right to make, use, sell, offer for sale, or import that product; (b) where the subject matter of a patent is a process, the exclusive right to use the process and to offer such use to third parties; (c) the exclusive right to use the product obtained directly by the patented process, to offer it for sale and to sell, import and possess same.
- Patent agreements: Patent applicants and owners may totally or partially, gratuitously or onerously, assign, mortgage or transfer by succession, the patent application or the patent and to grant exclusive and non exclusive licenses thereon. Any agreement involving a patent application or a patent of invention shall not be valid unless it is made in writing and shall not be enforceable against third parties unless it is recorded on the Patent Register. Late recordal entails heavy surtaxes.
- Duration: twenty years from the application date. Patent applications and/or patents which were in force at the date of publication of the new Patent Law has benefited from the twenty years duration.
- Extension of duration not possible.
- Annuities are due at the anniversary of the patent application.
- Grace period: annuities may be paid within six months from the anniversary of the patent with fine.
- Forfeiture: the patent shall cease to have effect if the patentee fails to pay the annual fee and the relevant fine before the expiration of the grace period.
- Restoration: the patentee may file an application for restoration within six months following the forfeiture date, with evidence that the failure of payment of the annual fee and the late payment fine was due to a serious reason. In case the restoration application is accepted by the Minister of Economy and Trade, the double of the amount of annuity with fine is to be paid within thirty days from the date of notification. Any decision refusing the patent restoration may be appealed before the Court of Appeals in Beirut (Civil Chamber) within sixty days from the date of notification.
- Compulsory license: After grant, any person capable of exploiting the invention seriously and efficiently may file a legal action before the Tribunal of First Instance in Beirut (Civil Chamber) requesting the grant of a non-exclusive compulsory license arguing the non-working of the invention on the Lebanese territory or the cessation of such working in the last three years.
- Revocation: The patent may be revoked by a court ruling for lack of novelty, lack of inventive activity, lack of industrial application, ambiguity, and exceptions to protection. The patent may also be revoked if the claims exceed scope of the specification as originally filed. In case the grounds for revocation only affect a part of the patent, the cancellation decision shall be limited to the claims concerned.
- Infringement: After publication, any breach of patent rights is sanctioned by civil and criminal penalties. Ex parte precautionary measures, including seizure of bogus goods, are available.
