Who is the competent authority for patent applications for inventions in Luxembourg?

• via Paris Convention : 6 months from earliest priority date.
• EU appearance route: 6 months from the earliest priority date.
• Hague Agreement route: 6 months from earliest priority date.

• via Paris Convention : 12 months from earliest priority date.
• via Nationalization of PCT : 20 months from the earliest priority date.
• Validation of European Patent in EPO member states: within 3 months from the date of granted of the European invention.

*Luxembourg is one of the only countries in the world that still retain Chapter I for 20 months to enter the national phase (the other is Tanzania). If it takes 30 months to enter the national phase, a request for international preliminary examination must be submitted.

The initial protection is 5 years, which can be renewed 4 times, each time for 5 years, and the maximum protection can be 25 years.

OPI does not conduct substantive examination for utility models (short-term patents). If no search is carried out or search reports from other countries are provided, it will only be protected as a short-term patent.

6-18 months

5-8 months

6 years

20 years

Reinstatement of priority is accepted on grounds of "due care."