Intellectual Property Working Group Meeting

The Intellectual Property Working Group held its regular meeting on 15 August 2019. This time, the Group discussed on two priority topics of the industry. The first topic discussed was the deadline for submission of request to delay requirement under Article 20 of Patent Law to locally manufactured registered patent. According to the Law, non-compliance to this requirement is punishable by revocation of the registered patent. The Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DG IP) has issued a policy to allow patent holders to delay the locally manufactured requirement, provided that the application is submitted before the following deadlines:

1 . For patents granted under the current 2016 Patent Law, the deadline is within 3 years from grant; and

2. For patents granted under the old Patent Law (before 26 August 2016), the deadline is within 3 years from passing of the new Patent Law on 26 August 2016 – which means 25 August 2019.

The second and last topic of discussion was about the Government’s plan to revise the Patent Law. In this regard, it is under the government’s opinion that some provisions are no longer suitable and need to be improved by considering compliance with international conventions and agreements, as well as the need to attract more innovations and investments to the country. This meeting further discussed the stipulations that are proposed by the DG IP to be revised, including regarding locally produced obligation in Article 20, Compulsory License in Article 82, and Implementation of Patent by the Government under Article 109. At the end of the meeting, the group agreed as requested by the DG IP to submit inputs regarding these provisions to be considered by the DG IP in developing the academic papers that will be used for the drafting the actual revision to the Patent Law.

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