PATENTS

Dominican Republic Patent Law

The registration of patents, utility models and Designs in the Dominican Republic is governed by Law 20-00 on Industrial Property in force from May 8, 2000, modified by the Law 424-06 of November 20, 2006 and its Decree 599-01 of the Application Regulations of the Law 20-00.

* The institution responsible for ensuring the intellectual property of a patent, utility model and design in the Dominican Republic is the National Intellectual Property Office (ONAPI).

Dominican

Republic

is

member

of

the

following

IP

agreements

and

conventions

-Paris Convention

-Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)

-WIPO Convention

-Berne Convention

-Hague Agreement

-Madrid Protocol

-Trademark Law Treaty (TLT)

-Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances

-Singapore Treaty

-Marrakesh VIP Treaty

-Budapest Treaty

-Lisbon Agreement

- UPOV convention

Documents required

- Power of Attorney (POA) duly notarized and legalized by Apostille or Consulate.

- Assignment legalized will be required if applicant is not the inventor.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PATENT REGISTRATION PROCEDURE

Filing

The patent application in Dominican Republic is filed at the National Intellectual Property Office (ONAPI).

Formal Examination

The Patent Office (ONAPI) will review the application within 60 days from filing date. First will check if there are errors of form and will check formalities requirements. If there is some need to be fixed, the applicant have 60 days to response.

Publication

The patent need to be published within 18 months after filing date. Early publication is available under applicant request.

* The patent application will be published for a period of 60 days.

Observations may be submitted within 60 days from the date of publication. The presentation of observations will not suspend the processing of the application.    The applicant have 60 days to response official actions observations from receipt date.

* Observations and their comments will be taken into account in the examination of the merits of the application.

Substantive Examination

The applicant need to pay the prescribed fee and request the substative examination within 12 months after publication date. If that period expires without having paid the examination fee, the application will be automatically abandoned and will be filed automatically.

ONAPI will examined the Novelty, Inventive level and unity and industrial applicability.

If ONAPI issue the examination report with objections, the applicant will have 3 months to response.

Grant

If the Patent office of Dominican Republic consider the examination report is favorable, they it will issued the grant resolution.

Post Grant Publication

The applicant can request the publication of the patent granted upon payment of the prescribed fee.

Timeframe

The approximate timeframe from filing to registration for the granting of a Invention patent must be made within a maximum period of 5 years counting from the filing date or 3 years counting from the application date of the substantive examination, whichever is greater.

Duration

The protection period obtained is 20 years, counted from the date of submission of the application.

Annuities

Annual fees must be paid to keep in force a Patent register or a Pending patent application pending. Payments will be made before the beginning of the corresponding annual Maintenance Period (anniversary). The first annual fee will be paid before the beginning of the third year from the date of the patent application.

* A grace period of 6 months will be granted for the payment of an annual fee, by paying the established surcharge. During the grace period, the Patent or the patent application, as the case may be,maintains its full validity.

* Failure to pay any of the annual fees in the grace period automatically results in the expiration of the Patent or the patent application, as the case may be.

* Applications filed in the national phase in the framework of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), must make the payment of the expired maintenance fees, before the first anniversary of the date of entry into the national phase of the request. The six

(6) month grace period established by the National Law will be applied for the payment of the maintenance fees in force.

PCT

The deadline to enter into national phase PCT in Dominican Republic in chapter I and II is 30 months.

Priority

Priority of a international patent application can be claimed in Dominican Republic within the 12 months of the filing date of the foreign application. A certified copy of the priority application need to be filed within 3 months after filing of the local application.

Subject matters excluded from patent protection of invention in Dominican Republic

a) Discoveries that consist of making known something that already exists in nature, scientific theories and mathematical methods;

b) Exclusively aesthetic creations;

c) The plans, principles or economic or business methods, and those related to activities purely mental or industrial or a matter of play;

d) Information presentations;

e) Computer programs;

f) Therapeutic or surgical methods for human or animal treatment, as well as diagnostic methods;

g) All kinds of living matter and pre-existing substances in nature;

h) The juxtaposition of known inventions or mixtures of known products, their variation in shape, dimensions or materials, except for their combination or fusion, so that they cannot function separately or that the qualities or their characteristic functions are modified to obtain a result industrial not obvious to a technician in the field;

i) Products or procedures already patented due to the fact that a different use is attributed to that included in the original patent.

2) The following inventions will not be patentable, nor will they be published:

a) Those whose exploitation would be contrary to public order or morality;

b) Those that are obviously contrary to the health or life of people or animals, or may cause serious damage to the environment;

c) Plants and animals, except microorganisms, and procedures essentially biological for the production of plants or animals, other than non-biological or microbiological procedures. Plant varieties will be regulated by virtue of a special law, in accordance with the provisions of Article 27.3, letter b),of TRIPS.