Patents

Patents shall be granted for any inventions which are new, which involve an inventive step and which are susceptible of industrial application. Inventions must have a technical character.

The following in particular shall not be regarded as inventions:

  1. discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods,
  2. aesthetic creations,
  3. schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business and programs for computers,
  4. presentations of information.

Are you interested in what the entire patent application process entails, how much it costs to file a patent and then maintain patent protection? What needs to be done on your end and what can we do for you?

Call us at +420 543 217 593, email us at info@kaniasedlaksmola.cz or make an appointment at our office at Mendlovo náměstí 1a in Brno.

Patents are not granted in respect of:

1

inventions the exploitation

of which would be contrary to public order or morality; this fact may not be concluded merely because the exploitation of invention is prohibited by law,
2

plant or animal varieties

or essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals; this provision shall not apply to microbiological processes and the products thereof,
3

methods for treatment

of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body (this does not apply to products, in particular substances or compositions, for use in these methods for treatment and these diagnostic methods),
4

processes for cloning human beings

processes for modifying the germ line genetic identity of human beings, processes of using human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes or processes for modifying the genetic identity of animals, which are likely to cause them suffering without any substantial medical benefit to man or animal, and also to animals resulting from such processes; however, the contradiction to public policy or to principles of morality shall not be deduced merely from the fact that the exploitation of the invention is prohibited by legal regulation,
5

human body at various stages

of its formation and development, and the simple discovery of one of its elements, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene; it does not apply to an element isolated from the human body or otherwise produced by means of a technical process, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene, even if the structure of that element is identical to that of a natural element.

About patent application

Filing Date of the Application:

Establishes the priority right. Consequences:

  1. In case of filing a Czech application for an identical invention, the patent is granted only to the applicant having an earlier priority right.
  2. In case of filing a patent application abroad, if filed within 12 months since the first filing, such a patent application is regarded as if it had been filed at the date of the first filing.

Publication of the Patent Application:

The patent application is published 18 months after the filing date. The publication establishes the right to the protection against infringers of a future patent, the granted patent retroactively protecting the invention back to the publication date of the application.

Request for Substantial Examination:

A patent may be granted after the substantive examination by the Industrial Property Office is carried out. A request for the substantive examination can be filed any time since filing the patent application until 36 months after the filing date. This term cannot be extended and if said term is not met, the application lapses.

Date of the Grant of the Patent:

The effect of the patent begins on the date of publication of the mention of its grant in the Official Bulletin of the Industrial Property Office; a remuneration for infringing the rights from the patent is enforceable retroactively for the period starting with the publication date of the patent application.

The validity of the patent is 20 years since the filing date and is subject to the payment of annual maintenance fees. In case of medicaments and preparations for the protection of plants, a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) may be granted to the effective compound, which certificate may extend the patent validity by another 5 years at the most (or 5 and half year in case of pediatric drugs).

 

Forms of the Patent Application

National patent application

Proceedings take place at the Czech PTO (ÚPV), the patent is valid only in the territory of the Czech Republic.

International (PCT)

The first phase of the proceedings (filing, search, publication, eventually a preliminary examination) takes place at the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO), then the proceedings continue individually in the selected contracting states or regions, which nowadays amount to 152.

European Patent Application

Proceedings take place at the European Patent Office (EPO) until the grant of the patent, after which it is possible to "validate” the patent in any of the European Patent Convention (EPC) countries: AL, AT, BE, BG, CH, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, LI, LT, LU, LV, MC, MK, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, SK, SM, TR.

National Patent Application abroad

Proceedings take place at the national foreign PTO, the patent is valid only in the territory of the respective country.