How many years is the protection period for utility model applications in Portugal?

• Licensing Fee: None.
• Annuity: pay once every 5 years, and must be paid within 6 months before the due date of the application. If the annual fee is overdue, it can be paid within a grace period of 6 months, and a 50% penalty is required.

INPI only conducts formality examination of utility model patent applications. Substantive examination may only be requested if the applicant deems it necessary. An invention protected by a patent can be protected simultaneously or successively with a utility model. To this end, applicants have a maximum of 1 year to make changes.

A novelty grace period of 6 months is available if:

• Disclosures caused at officially organized or officially sanctioned international exhibitions
• Disclosure resulting from being made public for reasons related to the misuse of the inventor or its predecessor owner

• via Paris Convention : 12 months from earliest priority date.
• via Nationalization of PCT : 30 months from the earliest priority date.

If the disclosure is caused by the designer, the novelty grace period is 12 months from the date of disclosure.

2-3 years

• Licensing Fee: None.
• Annuity: From the 5th year onwards from the date of application, it will be paid year by year. The application fee includes annual fees for the first and second years. There is no annual fee for the third and fourth years, but the applicant needs to notify INPI for renewal in the third and fourth years. All subsequent annual fees must be paid within six months before the date corresponding to the year of application. Overdue annual fees can be paid within a 6-month grace period, and 50% of the annual fee of the current year is required to be paid as a penalty.

yes. Before the applicant has received a final decision, an application to change the type of invention from a utility model to an invention may be proposed.

no