Our ‘FOCUS ON’ series provides a short basic overview of country’s general information, with focus on main IP points of interest.
There are many criteria that can be used when searching the national or international patent databases and the choice is largely determined by the goal of the search. Besides straightforward search criteria such as – by owner, inventor or EP number, more complex criteria include – search by abstract, search by description of the invention or chemical / generic title search.
For more detailed information on which country offers which patent search criteria, contact us.
Patents are a way of protecting the inventions and as they offer a significant competitive advantage to their owners – patents are extremely valuable assets. Thus, properly managing a patent portfolio is crucial – from adopting a right strategy, deciding on regions of interest and entrusting the right agent to handle it for its entire duration. Our firm regularly assists clients with PCT, national, divisional applications and EP validations.
Contact us to learn more about patent portfolio management services that we offer.
Here, you can learn more about 5 useful facts about EP validations in former Yugoslavian countries + Albania.
It is crucial to have reliable support as missing timely payments results in the loss of patent rights. That is why we issue regular annuity payment reminders to our clients. Having supported many clients through annuity payments, including reputable annuity management companies, we understand the
importance of handling the deadlines, the need for prompt payments and necessity of cost efficiency.
We are flexible with our fees, which depend on the number of annuity payments we
handle on behalf of a client.
We also work with large annuity service providers on daily basis.
Supplementary Protection Certificate enables some of the inventions already protected by patents to last 25 instead of only 20 years. These inventions must be related to the protection of biologically active agents, namely human or veterinary medicaments and plant protection products. This change in duration compensates for the long time needed to obtain regulatory approval of these products (i.e. authorization to put these products on the market). Montenegro does not currently recognize SPC filings, although their IP laws regulate this matter, but predict the use of SPC protection only once they join the EU.
In Kosovo new regulations came in place in early 2022, allowing the SPC protection, after years following the Montenegrin model – regulating the matter in their Law, but postponing the application until they become a EU member.
We have our detailed SPC Tariff, which contains costs for filing of SPC and fees associated with the additional annuities.
Utility models are another way to protect inventions. As they last shorter than patents and as the Intellectual Property Office does not substantially examine them, the registration process is often significantly simpler and faster.
Due to their similarity to patents they are often also called petty or small patents.
Besides Montenegro, all of the territories we cover recognize utility model as an IP right.
The life cycle of utility models is 10 years. Annuities are paid each year, the same as in patent matters.
Contact us to find out more about utility model services we provide, or read more to find out the terminology used and the possible limitations on number of claims.