Ministry of Commerce and Industry Resolution No. 115 of 2016 Issuing the Executive Regulations of Law No. 71 of 2013 Promulgating the Patent Law (Regulation) of the GCC States

Ministry of Commerce and Industry Resolution No. 115 of 2016
Issuing the Executive Regulations of Law No. 71 of 2013 Promulgating the Patent Law (Regulation) of the GCC States

Articles of Issuance

Article One

The provisions of the amended Executive Regulations, the texts of which are attached to this Resolution, shall apply in implementing the provisions of Law No. (71) of 2013 approving the Patent Law (Regulation) of the States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.

Article Two

The rates set out in the table attached to this Resolution shall apply to the fees payable for the procedures carried out under the Law “the Regulation”.

Article Three

Anything contrary to the provisions of this Resolution is hereby repealed.

Article Four

This Resolution shall be published in the Official Gazette and shall come into force from the day following the date of its publication.

Executive Regulations

Article 1

Definitions:
In applying the provisions of these Regulations, the following expressions shall have the meanings assigned to each of them, unless the context requires otherwise:
1/1- Cooperation Council: the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, composed of (the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar and the State of Kuwait)
1/2- Ministerial Council: the Ministerial Council of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.
1/3- Committee: the Grievance Committee appointed by the Ministerial Council to exercise its competences provided for in the Patent Regulation of the GCC States and its implementing regulations.
1/4- Board of Directors: the Board of Directors of the Patent Office of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf provided for in the Statute of the Patent Office.
1/5- Office: the Patent Office of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, composed of the Board of Directors and the executive body of the Office.
1/6- Regulation: the Patent Regulation of the States of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.
1/7- Patent: the document granted by the Office to the owner of an invention so that the invention enjoys legal protection in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation and its implementing regulations, and which shall be valid in all Council States.

Article 2

The application shall be submitted to the Office on the form prepared for that purpose.

Article 3

First: The application shall include the following:-
3/1- A detailed description of the invention, beginning with the title of the invention, in which the following shall be observed:
3/1/1- Specifying the technical field to which the invention relates.
3/1/2- Stating the background prior art known to the inventor and the documents relating thereto which may be considered useful for understanding, examining and searching the invention.
3/1/3- Disclosing the invention in terms that allow it to be understood, in a clear and complete manner, so that any person of ordinary skill in the art can evaluate and carry out the invention, stating the advantageous effects of the invention, if any.
3/1/4- Briefly describing the figures contained in the drawings, if any
3/1/5- Explaining the best mode known to the inventor for carrying out the invention on the filing date of the application or, where priority is claimed, on the priority date of the application, by setting out examples where appropriate and by reference to the drawings, if any.
3/1/6- A clear statement of the manner in which the invention is industrially applicable, and of the manner of making and using it, or of using it only, as the case may be, and the results achieved, supported by examples and statistics whenever possible.
3/2- Claims, in the drafting of which the following shall be observed:
3/2/1- Specifying the claims, whether one or more; the description and drawings may be used to interpret the claims where necessary.
3/2/2- That the claims be clear and concise and consistent with what is stated in the description.
3/2/3- That the number of claims be proportionate to the nature of the invention and that they be numbered serially.
3/2/4- That the claims set out the technical features of the invention.
3/2/5- That the claims include the following:
3/2/5/1- The technical features of the invention necessary for defining the invention which form part of the prior art.
3/2/5/2- The new technical features for which protection is sought, linked to the features mentioned in the preceding item and preceded by words or expressions such as (characterised in that) or (characterised by being) or (comprising the improvement made thereto) or any expressions conveying the same meaning.
3/2/6- With regard to the technical features of the invention, the claims shall not rely on references to the description or to the drawings, unless absolutely necessary. In particular, they shall not rely on references such as
(as illustrated in part …………. of the description) or (as illustrated in figure ………….. of the drawings).
3/2/7- If the application includes drawings, the technical features mentioned in the claims shall be followed by reference signs relating to those features. Where reference signs are used, they shall be placed between parentheses, and such signs shall not be used if they would not facilitate a quicker understanding of the claims.
3/3- Drawings of the invention, which shall be submitted when they are necessary for understanding the invention; they may also be submitted if the nature of the invention permits its illustration by drawing, even if this is not necessary for understanding the invention.
3/4- An abstract of the invention of not less than (50) words and not more than (200) words, to be used solely for technical information, setting out:
3/4/1- A summary of what is disclosed in the description, claims and drawings; it shall indicate the technical field to which the invention belongs and shall be drafted in a manner that permits a clear understanding of the technical problem, the substance of the solution of that problem by means of the invention, and the principal uses of the invention.
3/4/2- Where applicable, the chemical formula that best characterises the invention in comparison with all other formulae contained in the application shall be indicated, and the best illustrative drawing submitted by the applicant shall be attached to the abstract.
3/4/3- The numerals and letters identifying each principal technical feature mentioned in the abstract and illustrated by a drawing shall be inserted, and the numerals and letters, placed between parentheses, shall correspond to the numerals and letters of the drawing.
3/4/4- The abstract shall not mention the advantages or value of the invention claimed by the inventor, or its theoretical application.
Second: The following shall be attached to the application:
3/1- An extract from the commercial register, or an official extract of the memorandum of incorporation or instrument of establishment, as the case may be, if the applicant is a legal person.
3/2- A document evidencing the applicant’s entitlement to the invention, if any, where the applicant is not the inventor.
3/3- The consent of the person concerned, if the essential elements of the invention were obtained from the invention of another person.
3/4-The power of attorney, if the application is filed through an agent.
3/5- A copy of the earlier application and the accompanying documents, together with a certificate stating its filing date and number and the State in which it was filed, if the application includes a request that priority of registration be given based on an earlier application in another State.
The documents referred to in Second above, except paragraph (5), shall be duly authenticated.
All documents shall be accompanied by a translation into Arabic if they are drafted in English, or by a translation into both Arabic and English if they are drafted in another language.
The documents referred to in (First) shall be attached to the application, in an original and a copy, upon its filing, and the conditions set out in Articles (4) and (5) of these Regulations shall be observed therein and in the application.
As for the other documents, if they are not attached to the application, the applicant may submit a written undertaking, on the form prepared for that purpose, to submit those of them that are required, as the case may be, within three months from the date of filing of the application; if he does not submit them within this period, the application shall be deemed never to have been filed, with the exception of the document referred to in Clause (3/5) of Second, failure to submit which, where required, within this period shall result in the forfeiture of the applicant’s right to claim priority; and an annotation shall be made in the Register of Applications that the application is deemed never to have been filed or that the applicant’s right of priority has been forfeited, as the case may be, pursuant to a decision of the Director General of the Office.

Article 4

4/1 – The application shall be submitted on smooth, non-glossy white paper of size (A4 – 29.7 cm × 21 cm), and the Office may accept sheets of explanatory drawings of another size.
4/2- All sheets shall be in a form that allows them to be reproduced directly by photography.
4/3- All sheets shall be numbered consecutively at the top centre of the page.
4/4- The minimum margin of the sheets shall be 2 cm.
4/5- The particulars of the application shall be typed; however, symbols, particulars, chemical or mathematical formulae and certain written characters may, where necessary, be handwritten or drawn.

Article 5

The following shall be observed in the drawings:
5/1- Preparing the drawings with permanent lines that are sufficiently dense and dark, uniformly thick and well defined, without the need for colouring.
5/2- Drawing the figures upright in relation to the drawing sheet, as far as possible.
5/3- Writing the letters and numerals used to refer to parts of the drawing clearly, and using the same letters and numerals in the different views of the drawing; where such letters and numerals are written outside the figure, they shall be connected by thin lines to the parts to which they refer.
5/4- Where more than one figure is drawn on a single sheet, sufficient space shall be left between each figure and the next, and the figures shall be given consecutive numbers.
5/5- Not writing on the drawing sheets any statement relating to the title or description of the invention.

Article 6

6/1- Every earlier filing with a national office of another State or with a regional office shall be deemed to give rise to a right of priority if it has the effect of a valid filing in that State or office.
A filing shall be deemed valid if it is sufficient to establish the date on which the application was filed in the State concerned or the regional office, regardless of the subsequent fate of the application.
6/2- The priority periods shall be twelve Gregorian months, running from the date of filing of the first application, and the day of filing shall not be included in calculating the period.
6/3- If the last day of the period is an official holiday or a day on which the Office is not open to accept the filing of applications, the period shall be extended to the first working day following it.
6/4- When claiming priority, the applicant shall state the following:
6/4/1- The date of the earlier application
6/4/2- The number of the earlier application; the applicant may submit it within a period not exceeding three months from the date of filing of the application.
6/4/3- The International Patent Classification symbol allocated to the earlier application; if no classification symbol has been allocated at the time of filing the application, the Office shall be notified thereof immediately upon allocation of the symbol.
6/4/4- The State in which the earlier application was filed, or the office with which the earlier application was filed if the application is a regional or international application.

Article 7

If the person concerned wishes to obtain a temporary title for a product that may be the subject of a patent and wishes to display it at any official exhibition held within one of the GCC States in accordance with Article (2), paragraph (2), of the Regulation, he shall, before the exhibition, submit to the Office an application on the form prepared for that purpose, accompanied by a brief statement of the description and drawing of the invention and a statement of the products relating to it, and the Office may require the applicant to submit any other statement it deems necessary. As for products exhibited outside the GCC States, a certificate shall be produced from the competent official authority showing the identity of the exhibited object and the date of its exhibition, and it shall be duly authenticated.

Article 8

The Office shall maintain a register of temporary titles in which applications shall be entered under serial numbers, and which shall contain the following particulars:
8/1- The application number.
8/2- The date of filing of the application.
8/3- The name, nationality, address and place of residence of the applicant, or his head office if he is a legal person.
8/4- The name and address of the agent.
8/5- The address for service in the State concerned to which correspondence shall be sent.
8/6- The exhibition, its venue and the date of its opening.
8/7- The title of the invention.
8/8- A statement of the products relating to the invention.
8/9- The date of entry of the products into the exhibition.
8/10- The number, date and duration of the temporary title.

Article 9

After verifying the entry of the products into the exhibition, the Office shall issue to the applicant the temporary certificate on the form prepared for that purpose; this certificate shall be valid for a period not exceeding six months from the date of the official opening of the exhibition.

Article 10

Applications shall be given serial numbers according to the date and time of their filing; the application shall be marked with its serial number, the date and time of its filing and the number and date of the receipt for payment of the prescribed fee; the attachments to the application shall be marked with its serial number, and the application and its attachments shall be stamped with the seal of the Office.
The applicant shall be handed a receipt on the form prepared for that purpose containing the serial number of the application, the date and time of its filing, a statement of the documents attached to it and the number and date of the receipt for payment of the prescribed fee.

Article 11

The Office shall maintain a register of patent applications containing the following particulars:
11/1- The serial number of the application
11/2- The date of filing of the application
11/3- The title of the invention
11/4- The name, nationality, address, address for service and place of residence of the applicant, or his head office if he is a legal person.
11/5- The name and address of the agent (if any)
11/6- The name of the State to which the earlier application was submitted, and its date and number, if the application relates to an earlier priority of registration.
11/7- The date and number of the decision granting the patent or rejecting the application, and the date of publication of the decision.
11/8- The patent number.

Article 12

12/1- If a patent application relates to an invention whose implementation requires the use of a microorganism that is not available to the public before the filing date of the application, the content of the application shall be deemed a sufficient and complete disclosure enabling a person of ordinary skill in the art to carry out the invention if the following conditions are met:
12/1/1- A culture of the microorganism has been deposited with one of the accredited depositary institutions on a date before the filing date of the application.
12/1/2- The application, as filed, refers to the characteristics of the microorganism.
12/1/3- The application includes the name of the depositary institution of the microorganism and the date and number of the deposit.
12/2- The furnishing of the information specified in paragraph 12/1/3 shall constitute the applicant’s final and unreserved consent to the deposited culture being made available to any person who submits to the depositary institution, on or after the date of publication of the decision granting the patent, a valid request to that effect to receive a sample of that microorganism.
The request shall not be deemed valid unless it is accompanied by the approval of the Director General of the Office for delivery of the sample to that person after payment of the prescribed fee, and the person requesting the culture shall submit to the Office an undertaking not to make the culture available to any other person until the patent lapses or expires.

Article 13

13/1- The applicant shall, at the request of the Director General of the Office, notify him of the dates and numbers of any patent applications filed by the applicant with another office for the same invention or for an invention substantially identical to the invention claimed in the application submitted to the Director General of the Office.
13/2- The applicant shall, at the request of the Director General of the Office, submit to him the following documents relating to one of the earlier applications referred to in paragraph: 1
13/2/1- A copy of every communication received by the applicant concerning the results of any search or examination to which the earlier application was subjected.
13/2/2- A copy of the patent granted following the filing of an earlier application.
13/2/3- A copy of any final decision rejecting the earlier application or refusing to grant the patent that is the subject of the earlier application.
13/3- The applicant shall, at the request of the Director General of the Office, submit to him a copy of any final decision invalidating the patent granted on the basis of the earlier application referred to in sub-paragraph 13/1

Article 14

In cases other than the foregoing, the Office may, where necessary, require the applicant to submit samples or models in accordance with the special conditions it specifies; in all cases, if the samples contain toxic, corrosive, highly flammable or explosive substances, this shall be stated on the label affixed to them.

Article 15

If it becomes apparent to the Office that the invention relates to the security of any of the GCC States and the application has passed the formal and substantive examination, it shall be exempted from publication fees, and the patent shall be granted and delivered to the applicant, and the Office shall notify the State or States concerned thereof. The Member States shall provide the Office with the fields that are considered to be related to security.

Article 16

The Office shall formally examine the application and its attachments to ascertain that it satisfies the conditions set out in the Regulation and the Executive Regulations.
If the examination shows that the conditions prescribed in the Regulation have not been satisfied, the Office shall notify the applicant, by registered mail or by mail with acknowledgement of receipt, to complete what is required within a maximum of three months from the date of receipt of the notification; otherwise, his application shall be deemed never to have been filed, and an annotation to that effect shall be made in the Register of Applications pursuant to a decision of the Director General of the Office.

Article 17

The applicant may request the correction of any clerical or arithmetical errors contained in the application or the description, and may also request the amendment or addition of any particular in the application, including the description or drawing of the invention, stating the nature of, and reasons for, the correction, amendment or addition, provided that this does not result in any substantial change to the description or drawing as it stood at the time of filing the application. The correction, amendment or addition shall not be made until after payment of the prescribed fees and the approval of the Office thereof.

Article 18

If the formal examination shows that the application is formally complete, the Office shall estimate the costs required for the substantive examination of the application on the basis of an estimative study of such costs, and the Office shall then send a notification by registered mail or by mail with acknowledgement of receipt to the applicant requiring him to pay such costs within a maximum of three months from the date of his receipt of the notification. If the applicant pays them within the specified period, the Office shall refer the application to substantive examination; otherwise, the application shall be deemed never to have been filed, and an annotation to that effect shall be made in the register in which the application is recorded pursuant to a decision of the Director General of the Office.

Article 19

19/1- The Office shall notify the applicant of the result of the substantive examination, and the applicant shall submit to the Office amendments to the application in accordance with the examination report.
19/2- The application shall be examined a second time in the light of the amendments or clarifications submitted by the applicant, at his expense.
19/3- The Office shall notify the applicant of the result of the second examination, and the applicant shall amend the application in accordance with the examination report; the application shall be examined a third time at the applicant’s expense.
19/4- If, after the third examination, it becomes apparent that the application does not conform to the conditions of grant, the application shall be rejected.
19/5- The applicant shall respond to every notification addressed to him by the Office concerning the amendment of the application on the basis of the examination report within three months of its date; if no response is made within the specified period, the application shall be rejected.

Article 20

If the substantive examination of the application shows that it satisfies the conditions set out in the Regulation and the Executive Regulations, the applicant shall, after the Office approves the grant of the patent, be notified to pay the publication and grant fee within three months from the date of his receipt of the notification. The decision shall be published after payment of the publication and grant fees. If he does not pay them, he shall be notified to pay within an additional three months, after which the application shall be deemed never to have been filed.
If, after three months from the date of publication, no opposition has been filed with the Committee by an interested party, the patent shall be entered in the Patent Register and delivered to the applicant.

Article 21

If the substantive examination shows that the application does not satisfy the conditions set out in the Regulation and the Executive Regulations, the Office shall issue a reasoned decision rejecting the application and shall notify the applicant thereof by registered mail or by mail with acknowledgement of receipt. The applicant may file a grievance against this decision with the Committee within three months from the date of its publication.

Article 22

The first page of the patent shall include the following:-
22/1- The application number.
22/2- The number and date of the decision granting the patent.
22/3- The patent number.
22/4- The date of issue of the patent.
22/5- The name of the inventor, unless he has declared in writing that he does not wish his name to be mentioned.
22/6- The name, nationality and address of the owner.
22/7- The title of the invention.
22/8- The international classification.
22/9- The date of commencement and the date of expiry of protection.
22/10- The number and date of the priority application and the State in which it was filed, if the patent is based on such priority.
22/11- The name of the agent of the patent owner.
22/12- The number and date of the Bulletin in which the decision granting the patent was published.
22/13- The numbers of the applications and patents and the references cited from the prior art.
The description, claims, explanatory drawings and abstract shall be attached to the patent.

Article 23

The particulars set out in Clauses (1) to (13) of the preceding Article, and any amendments made or dispositions effected, shall be entered in the Patent Register.

Article 24

24/1- The prescribed annual fee shall be paid on the basis of a request submitted by the person concerned stating the application number, its filing date, the patent number, its date of grant and the year or years for which payment is requested. The Office shall annotate the payment request with the number and date of the payment receipt, the amount paid and the year or years for which payment has been made.
24/2- The annual fee shall be paid within three months from the beginning of each year, starting from the year following the date of filing of the application, and may be paid within an additional period of three months upon payment of an additional fee.
24/3- The Office shall maintain a register of annual patent fees, in which the following particulars shall be entered on a separate page for each patent application:
24/3/1- The name and address of the applicant.
24/3/2- The name and address of the agent, if any.
24/3/3- The application number and its filing date.
24/3/4- The number and term of the patent.
24/3/5- The years in which the fees fall due, in serial numbers.
24/3/6- The end date of the annual period for payment without an additional fee.
24/3/7- The end date of the annual period for payment with an additional fee.
24/3/8- The number and date of the payment receipt and the amount paid.
24/3/9- The expiry date of the patent.

Article 25

Fees shall be determined in accordance with the attached Schedule, and sole proprietorships and commercial establishments shall be deemed Companies for the purposes of this Article.

Article 26

Requests or grievances shall be submitted to the Committee in an original together with a copy of the documents, to be delivered to the Secretariat of the Committee, and shall include the following particulars:
26/1- The full name of the grievant, his profession or occupation, his place of residence, and the number, date and source of issue of his proof of identity, and the same information for his representative, if any.
26/2- A statement of the subject matter of the request or grievance.
26/3- A statement of the particulars and evidence on which it is based.

Article 27

The Committee shall fix a date, by day and hour, for considering the request or grievance, and the Office shall be notified by means of a notice of service, provided that the date of appearance before the Committee shall be after a period of not less than twenty days from the date of receipt of the notice of service.

Article 28

The Secretary of the Committee shall notify the grievant and the Office of the date, by day and hour, of the hearing set for considering the case, and shall provide the Office with a copy of the papers submitted in the grievance.

Article 29

A party shall be deemed to have knowledge of the date of the subsequent hearing if he or his representative was present at the previous hearing.

Article 30

A party shall appear in person before the Committee, and may appoint as his agent another person who has the right to act as agent in accordance with the regulations in force in the Headquarters State, by virtue of an official power of attorney. Where the Committee requests the personal appearance of a party, he shall comply therewith.

Article 31

If the grievant fails to attend the first hearing without a legitimate excuse accepted by the Committee, the grievance shall be struck off, and the grievant may resume the proceedings if he so requests within three months of the striking off. If the grievance is struck off again, it shall be deemed never to have been filed, unless the grievant submits an excuse accepted by the Committee. In all cases, if more than three months have elapsed since the grievance was struck off, it shall be deemed never to have been filed, and the grievance shall be renewed against payment of the prescribed fee.

Article 32

If the grievant fails to attend any hearing in the consideration of the grievance without submitting a legitimate excuse accepted by the Committee, the Committee may strike off the grievance, unless the Office requests at the hearing that the grievance not be struck off and that its merits be decided; provided that, if the grievance is ready for decision, it shall be decided in all cases.

Article 33

If the Office does not attend the first hearing, consideration of the grievance shall be adjourned to a second hearing, and the Office shall be notified of its date and informed that the decision will be issued in its respect as if rendered in its presence.

Article 34

Default in attendance may not be recorded against any of the litigants until at least one hour has elapsed from the time set for the hearing.

Article 35

The effects of default in attendance shall apply only to the party that has not sent a legitimate excuse accepted by the Committee before the time of the hearing. If the Committee accepts the excuse, the hearing shall be adjourned to another date, of which the parties shall be notified.

Article 36

The Committee shall, in all cases, verify the existence of capacity and the validity of representation of the grievant or of whoever represents him.

Article 37

The parties and their agents shall have the right to inspect the grievance file and to make any copy thereof at the premises of the Committee.

Article 38

If the parties submit a paper or document to be relied upon as evidence in the grievance, they may not withdraw it except with the approval of the Committee and after a copy thereof, certified by the Committee, has been kept in the grievance file. In all cases, the Committee may be satisfied with copies of documents after it has satisfied itself that they conform to the original, insofar as nothing requires the original to be deposited.

Article 39

The Chairman of the Committee shall give leave to plead to the grievant or his agent, and then give such leave to the Office.

Article 40

The parties shall set out all their requests and defences at one time. The Committee may grant the Office a time limit to respond to the grievance, provided that a time limit to respond to the same matter is not granted more than once, unless there are serious reasons assessed by the Committee.

Article 41

The Office shall answer the grievance. If it remains silent or fails to attend for the second time without an excuse, the Committee may take its silence or failure to attend as grounds for accepting the grievance, after the grievant has submitted what supports his claim.

Article 42

If the Committee considers that the decision on a matter depends on the decision on another question that falls outside its jurisdiction, it shall order a stay of consideration of the grievance until that question has been decided by the competent authority. As soon as the cause of the stay ceases to exist, any of the parties may request the continuation of the grievance within the thirty days following the cessation of the cause; otherwise, the grievance shall be deemed never to have been filed.

Article 43

The proceedings shall be interrupted by operation of law upon the death of the grievant, his loss of capacity to litigate or the cessation of the capacity in which he acts, unless the grievance has become ready for a decision on its merits. The grievance shall be deemed ready for a decision on its merits once the parties have made their final statements and requests. Consideration of the grievance shall resume if the person who takes the place of the grievant on whose account the proceedings were interrupted appears on the date previously set. Consideration of the grievance shall also resume at the request of any of the persons concerned, and such request shall be notified to the other parties or to those acting in their stead.

Article 44

The grievant may submit the following requests:-
44/1- Requests that include a correction of the original request, or an amendment of its subject matter to address circumstances that arose or became apparent after the grievance was submitted.
44/2- Requests that are complementary to the original request, consequential upon it, or connected with it by an indivisible link.
44/3- Requests that include an addition to, or a change in, the cause of the grievance, while the subject matter of the original request remains unchanged.

Article 45

Requests and defences shall be submitted before the Committee in legibly written memoranda. The Committee may be satisfied with what any of the parties states orally, and the Committee may ask the parties to put their statements and defences in writing in a manner that removes any uncertainty or ambiguity.

Article 46

Deliberations among the members of the Committee shall be secret.

Article 47

The Committee shall issue its decisions by an absolute majority of the votes of its members present. In the event of a tie, the side on which the Chairman voted shall prevail. In all cases, decisions shall be reasoned and signed by the Chairman and the members.

Article 48

The Committee shall correct any material errors, whether clerical or arithmetical, that occur in the decision, by a decision it issues of its own motion or at the request of one of the parties. The correction shall be recorded on the original copy of the decision and signed by the Chairman and the members.

Article 49

The parties may request the Committee to interpret any ambiguity in the operative part of its decision, and the interpretative decision shall be deemed complementary to the decision it interprets.

Article 50

The Committee may, immediately upon submission of the statement of grievance, order the taking of precautionary and protective measures against the Office, provided that the grievant furnishes such guarantees as the Committee deems fit to secure the right of the Office in the event that the grievance is not substantiated.

Article 51

If the Committee decides to seek the assistance of expert bodies, it may require whichever of the parties it deems fit to deposit an amount corresponding to the estimated expenses of the expert work, by a certified cheque drawn on an accredited bank, within a specified time limit. If the party concerned does not deposit the amount it was required to deposit within the time limit set by the Committee, the Committee may decide the grievance on the basis of the documents submitted therein, and the losing party shall bear the costs of the expert work.

Article 52

The Office may, by a decision of its Director General, issue forms and amend them as it deems appropriate for the proper conduct and development of work, provided that they are announced in the periodic bulletins of the Office.

Article 53

The patents registered with the Office and any data relating to them may be inspected free of charge in the presence of the competent employee of the Office. Any person shall have the right, upon payment of the prescribed fees, to obtain a copy thereof or of the data relating thereto, a certificate of their contents, or extracts from the register relating thereto.

Article 54

54/1- A licence contract, whether its subject matter is the assignment of the licence, the transfer of its ownership or the licensing of its exploitation, shall be registered in the register referred to in paragraph (3) of this Article, upon an application submitted to the Office by any party to the contract, accompanied by a copy of the contract with the signatures of both parties thereon duly authenticated, and translated into Arabic if it is drawn up in another language. The applicant shall pay the prescribed registration fee.
54/2- Applications for registration of licence contracts shall be given serial numbers according to the date of their submission. The application shall be endorsed with its serial number, the date of its submission, and the number and date of the receipt for payment of the registration fee; the copy of the contract shall be endorsed with the serial number of the application; the application and the copy of the contract shall be stamped with the seal of the Office; and the applicant shall be handed a receipt containing the serial number of the application, the date of its submission, a statement of the documents attached thereto, and the number and date of the receipt for payment of the registration fee.
54/3- The Office shall maintain a register of applications for registration of licence contracts, and this register shall contain the following data:
54/3/1- The serial number of the application and the date of its submission.
54/3/2- The name, nationality and address of the licensor, and the name and address of his agent, if any.
54/3/3- The name, nationality and address of the licensee, and the name and address of his agent, if any.
54/3/4- The address for service of each of the two parties to the contract.
54/3/5- The subject matter and term of the contract.
54/3/6- The date of the decision rejecting the registration and the date on which both parties were notified thereof.
54/3/7- The date of the decision approving the contract.
54/4- The Office shall maintain a register of the licence contracts whose registration it has approved, and this register shall contain the following data:
54/4/1- The registration number of the contract and the date of registration.
54/4/2- The date of the decision approving the registration.
54/4/3- The serial number of the application and the date of its submission.
54/4/4- The name, nationality and address of each of the two parties to the contract, and the name and address of the agent of each of them, if any
54/4/5- The address for service of each of them.
54/4/6- The subject matter and term of the contract.
Every amendment or renewal of the contract shall be entered in this register after its approval by the Office and payment of the prescribed amendment or renewal fee.

Schedules of Financial Fees
(in Saudi riyals)

Fee	Individuals	Companies
Patent application	2000	4000
Grant and publication of the patent	2500	5000

Annual fees	Individuals	Companies
Year 2	2000	4000
Year 3	2100	4200
Year 4	2200	4400
Year 5	2300	4600
Year 6	2400	4800
Year 7	2500	5000
Year 8	2600	5200
Year 9	2700	5400
Year 10	2800	5600
Year 11	2900	5800
Year 12	3000	6000
Year 13	3100	6200
Year 14	3200	6400
Year 15	2300*	6600
Year 16	3400	6800
Year 17	3500	7000
Year 18	3600	7200
Year 19	3700	7400
Year 20	3800	7600

* As printed in the Official Gazette; the sequence of the table indicates 3300.

Fee	Individuals	Companies
Correction of, amendment of or addition to the patent application	500	1000
Additional fee for late payment of the annual fee for the patent	500	1000
Transfer of the right in the application or transfer of ownership of the patent	500	1000
Obtaining a copy of the application, of the application register or of the patent	100	200
Application for the grant of a compulsory licence	15000	30000
Grant of a compulsory licence	5000	10000
Application for registration of a licence contract	5000	10000
Registration of a licence contract	500	1000
Registration of a grievance before the Committee	3000	6000
Renewal of a grievance before the Committee	1000	2000
Application for temporary protection	500	5000
Application for a sample of a culture	500	5000
Conducting a search	100	200
Substantive examination	Actual cost	Actual cost

Issued on 7 March 2016 and published in the Official Gazette Kuwait Al-Youm on 3 April 2016.