ARIPO to increase patent and design fees from March 1, 2025

ARIPO has announced that new amendments to the Harare Protocol on Patents and Industrial Designs and the Implementing Regulations will come into force on March 1, 2025. ARIPO has announced that it will significantly increase official fees, which will take effect on March 1, 2025. There are no changes to utility model official fees. The amendments and new official fees will apply to all existing and new applications.

patent:

• Designated countries can be added before the ARIPO patent application is published. However, this does not apply to PCT applications entering the ARIPO national phase.
• The deadline for responding to search reports and substantive examination reports has been changed from 6 months to 4 months.
• If the designated country sends a written notification to ARIPO indicating that the ARIPO patent is invalid in its territory, and the applicant submits a response to the notification; if the designated country does not respond to the applicant within 2 months, the application will be deemed rejected by the designated country.
• The deadline for payment of the grant and publication fees was changed to 4 months, and the deadline for the designated country to send a written notification to ARIPO indicating that the ARIPO patent is invalid in its territory was changed to 4 months.
• After ARIPO issues a notice of intent to grant, if the applicant wishes to proactively amend the description, claims or drawings that ARIPO has not suggested, or the amendment is based on unexamined claims, the patent application will be re-examined and an additional re-examination fee will be required.
• If the applicant wishes to make any restrictive post-grant amendments, the applicant must pay a reexamination fee; if the post-grant amendment is allowed, the applicant must also pay a republication fee.
• If the designated country sends a written notification to ARIPO that the ARIPO patent is invalid in its territory, the applicant can apply to convert the rejected patent into a national patent applied for in the designated country. ARIPO will forward the conversion application to the industrial property office of the designated country.
• If a designated country objects to any part of the patent specification proposed by ARIPO, arguing that it is unacceptable under national law, the applicant may respond by excluding those parts from the scope of protection in the designated country, and the ARIPO patent for that designated country may include claims different from those of other designated countries, as well as appropriate descriptions and drawings.

Design

• ARIPO design applications must submit a declaration of novelty within 2 months from the filing date.
• If ARIPO has examined the ARIPO design application and the application meets the formal requirements, ARIPO will forward the design application to the designated countries for selective substantive examination in accordance with their national laws. Some ARIPO member states, such as Kenya, conduct substantive examination of ARIPO design applications. Each designated country has 4 months to conduct substantive examination of the ARIPO design application after receiving the forwarding from ARIPO.