Venezuelan Chapter of Global Patent GO——Introduction to Patent Application in Venezuela

South America's "Little Venice"

The timeline has progressed to May 2022, and good news has come out of Venezuela. Credit Suisse has raised Venezuela's economic growth forecast for 2022 to 20%. Venezuelan President Maduro also said that in 2022, Venezuela's economic growth will exceed 10%. %. In August, Venezuela restarted diplomatic relations with Colombia after three years. At the same time, it was also reported that the United States will end oil sanctions against Venezuela in October.

All indications are that Venezuela is returning to the world track. This country used to have the highest economic growth rate in Latin America, the highest per capita GDP in Latin America, the lowest inequality in Latin America, and the largest consumption of Scotch whiskey in the world. From rich to deep crisis, try harder Recovery took 20 years.

Venezuela has rich oil reserves of 77.685 billion barrels, ranking sixth in the world. According to the current production capacity, it can be exploited for 70 years. The reserves of other minerals, such as iron ore, bauxite, coal, nickel ore, and gold are quite abundant, and the forest coverage rate has reached an enviable 56%. In order to implement the economic development goal of "sowing oil", Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation has formulated a 25-year oil industry development plan. The country will invest 56 billion US dollars in the construction of oil, natural gas, affiliated refineries, and pipeline facilities. In Venezuela, the telecommunications market is developing rapidly. After 10 years of marketing, the current telecommunications penetration rate in the domestic market has reached 80%.

Venezuela withdrew from the Andean Community (CAN) in 2006, and did not recognize food, beverage and pharmaceutical patents after 2008. Starting in 2021, the Venezuelan Intellectual Property Office (SAPI) issued Bulletin No. 608, authorizing two pharmaceutical patents, thus becoming an important turning point for Venezuela to resume pharmaceutical patent granted. At present, international treaties favorable to intellectual property rights are applicable in Venezuela, such as the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention, the Geneva Sound Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention.

Introduction to the Venezuelan Patent System

1. Venezuelan patent application filing language:

spanish

2. Types of patent protection in Venezuela:

inventions, designs

3. Ways for Chinese applicants to apply for patents in Venezuela:

Paris Convention, direct application (Venezuela is not a member of the PCT system, and cannot enter the Venezuelan national phase through the via Nationalization of PCT )

4. Review unit:

Venezuelan Intellectual Property Office, full name: Servicio Autonomo de la Propiedad Intelectual, referred to as SAPI. The new Director-General of the Intellectual Property Office is appointed by Dr. Francisco Astudillo, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the WIPO Standing Committee on Patents appointed by WIPO.

5. submit application:

(1) Time limit requirement: SAPI does not accept priority restoration, and the invention patent must be applied for within 12 months of the priority period;
(2) Submitting the application: At present, the form of paper submission is still adopted, and one paper copy is required to be submitted to SAPI;
(3) All Spanish translations required for application documents must be sworn and signed by a Venezuelan translator;
(4) The annual fee for the first year must be paid at the same time as the new application is submitted.

6. Formal examination, publication and granted:

For a patent application in Venezuela, three publications are required throughout the examination period. After the formality examination is completed, SAPI will issue a notice of disclosure of the invention patent, so that the applicant can publish it three times in local newspapers and periodicals. Then the case automatically enters the substantive trial procedure, and the applicant does not need to submit a separate substantive trial request. If the SAPI inspector considers that the granted conditions are met, an granted notice will be issued.

Features of Venezuelan patents

1. Venezuelan patent applications have strict requirements on the Spanish translation of the application documents, which must be sworn and signed by a Venezuelan translator, and the Power of Attorney and the inventor's statement are notarized and certified by the Venezuelan Embassy in China;

2. The Venezuelan patent application is not allowed to make any amendments after the submission;

3. The Venezuelan patent law does not allow divisional applications, but in practice, if there is a problem of lack of unity, upon the request of the examiner or the applicant, divisional applications can be filed, but the Claim are not allowed to be amended, and must be filed with The original Claim of the parent case submitted to SAPI are consistent;

4. In view of the shortage of examiner resources in the Venezuelan Intellectual Property Office, the public can make good use of the only 60-day opposition period in the Venezuelan patent application procedure to submit third-party public opinions;

5. There is a backlog of patent applications in Venezuela. Choosing a domestic agency in Venezuela has become an important consideration for Chinese applicants who want to speed up the examination. A competent agency will play an important role in accelerating the examination.

Friendliness to Chinese applicants:

★★★

Gold content of patent rights:

★★

The degree of perfection of the rights protection mechanism:

★★