New Patents
New patents are filed with the Israel Patent Office or with patent offices outside of Israel. In order to obtain registered patents, the applicant must meet the conditions of the Patents Law and Regulations. Section 3 of the Patents Law states what a patentable invention is: “An invention, whether a product or a process in any field of technology, which is new, useful, can be applied industrially and involves an inventive step – is a patentable invention.”
In other words, in order to obtain registered Israeli patents, the substantive conditions above must be met, among others.
Registered Israeli Patents and Applications Outside of Israel
In many cases it is not enough to obtain a registered patent in Israel; patents or other intellectual property rights must be filed and registered in additional countries in order to succeed in protecting the invention outside of Israel as well.
A patent is granted for a period of twenty years within the territory of the State of Israel. An Israeli inventor who wishes to protect his invention outside of Israel must file an application and pay a fee in each country separately. It is not necessary to file new patents in several countries immediately.
First, an application is filed in a first country; Israelis usually file first in Israel. Before a year has passed from the filing date, an application is filed outside of Israel in additional countries under the Paris Convention, which allows whoever filed a patent application in Israel to file patent applications in some 175 countries claiming the priority date of the Israeli application.
In other words, if John filed in Israel, and his competitor filed outside of Israel, then if John files a patent application outside of Israel, in the same country in which his competitor filed, before a year has passed, John will receive the priority date and will be considered as the one who filed the earlier application, even though his competitor filed an application before him in that country outside of Israel.
Registered Patents and Their Enforcement
The owner of a registered patent can prevent another person from exploiting his invention for twenty years, and in certain cases an extension order for another five years may be requested. However, it is important to manage the patent file correctly and keep the patent in force, otherwise the monopoly right granted by the patent cannot be enforced.
After the patent examiner in Israel issues a notice of acceptance of a patent, a periodic fee must be paid in order to keep the patent in force. The first fee after the issuance of the patent certificate must be paid before three months have passed from the date of issuance of the certificate, and it covers a period of six years. There are several dates for paying patent renewal fees, but an applicant can pay renewal fees in advance for twenty years.
Only a patent whose renewal fees are paid can be enforced in court. An inventor who sees a competitor copying his invention can file a claim in the District Court, seeking compensation and an injunction against exploiting the invention registered as a patent.
The above information is partial and incomplete. An attorney and patent attorney should be consulted on each case individually. For more details, call: +972-3-9711013.