On December 25, 2023, the UAE Patent Office announced new provisions of the UAE Patent Law at a meeting with local intellectual property agents. The new patent law has officially begun to be implemented on January 15, 2024. This revision of the patent law involves an increase in many types of fees, the most significant of which is the increase in official fees for substantive examination and the possible implementation of a fast-track examination mechanism, which will help global patent applicants apply in the UAE. Patents have a clear budget. Previously, the substantive examination official fees in the UAE would only be informed when the applicant received the substantive examination notice issued by the ICPR. The implementation of the new patent law will change this situation.
Specifically, ICPR’s new patent law involves the following aspects:
1. New charging standards for academic institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises in the UAE have been launched. The charging standards for small entities will only apply to Saudi Arabian enterprises and institutions.
2. ICPR allows the subsequent submission of legal documents and Arabic translations within 90 days of submitting a new application. However, an additional official fee of US$109.71 will be charged for each subsequent submission of documents.
3. Restoration fee: If the patent application exceeds the specified deadline, the patent applicant may submit a right restoration request fee. However, additional surcharges will be charged for each month exceeded. Let’s take the request for resumption of substantive examination as an example. For example, if the deadline for substantive examination is December 25, 2023:
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- If a reinstatement request is made on December 26, 2023, the reinstatement fee is AED 3,000 (approximately US$817);
- if a reinstatement request is made on January 26, 2023, the reinstatement fee to be paid shall be: AED 3,000 Rham (approximately US$817) + a one-month overdue reinstatement fee of AED 400 (approximately US$109.71);
- if a reinstatement request is made on February 26, 2023, the reinstatement fee to be paid should be: AED 3,000 (approximately US$817) + 2-month overdue reinstatement fee of AED 400 (approximately US$109.71) + AED 400 (US$109.71)
4. ICPR is expected to start implementing the fast review procedure in February 2024. This procedure requires an application to be submitted within 6 months after paying the actual review fee. But the availability of this service will depend on ICPR's review capabilities.
5. The actual examination fee depends on the number of claims, and will be charged in steps of 1-30, 11-30, and 31-50.
