PATENT PROTECTION.
1. Patentable Inventions
An invention shall be patentable if it is novel, involves an
inventive step and is industrially applicable.
2. What may not be patented?
discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
aesthetic creations;
schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing
games or doing business and programs for computers;
presentations of information
a method for the treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or
therapy and a diagnostic method practiced on the human or animal
body;
an invention the exploitation of which would be contrary to public
order or morality.
3. Requirements of application
An application for a patent shall be made in duplicate and shall be
accompanied by a list of necessary documentation. Please
contact us for further details.
4. Disclosure of the
invention
The application shall disclose the invention in a manner
sufficiently clear and complete for the invention to be carried out
by a person skilled in the area.
5. Inspection of Files
After a patent application or the patent granted thereon has been
published, any person may inspect the files of the application.
6. Rights of Priority
The application may contain a declaration claiming priority pursuant
to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property,
of one or more earlier national, regional or international
applications filed by the applicant or his predecessor in title in
or for any State party to the said Convention or the World Trade
Organisation or for any State with which Malta has made an
international arrangement for mutual protection of inventions.
7. Examination and Grant or Refusal
Following an examination of the application, an applicant shall be
given the opportunity to amend the application in order to comply
with the requirements. Failing such amendments, the Comptroller may
refuse the application.
8. Terms of Patents
The term of a patent shall be 20 years from the filing date of the
application. The maintenance of a patent shall be subject to the
payment of the prescribed fee in respect of the third year and each
subsequent year thereafter.
9. Rights conferred by a patent
The proprietor of the Patent shall have the right to prevent third
parties from performing without his authorisation:
the making of a product or the use of a process, which is the
subject-matter of the patent;
the offering on the market of a product incorporating the
subject-matter of a patent; and
the inducing of third parties to perform any of these acts.
A patent application, which has been
published shall provisionally confer upon the applicant the same
rights as mentioned above.
10. Assignment of Patents
Any change in the ownership of a patent
application or a patent shall be registered. The new proprietor of the application
or patent shall be entitled to institute any legal proceedings
concerning the patent only if he has been recorded in the patent
register as the new proprietor.
11. Licence Contract
A patent application or patent may be
licensed in whole or in part for the whole or part of Malta. A
licence may be exclusive or non-exclusive.
12. Non-voluntary licences
The Civil Court, First Hall, may, on a
writ of summons filed by any person who proves his ability to work
the patented invention in Malta, made after the expiration of a
period of four years from the date of filing the application for the
patent or three years from the grant of the patent, whichever is
later, direct the Comptroller to grant a non-exclusive,
non-voluntary licence if the patented invention is not worked or is
insufficiently worked in Malta.
13. Exploitation by Government or by
third parties authorized by Government
Where the national security or public
safety so requires, the Minister may authorize, even without the
agreement of the proprietor of the patent or the patent application,
by notice published in the prescribed form, a Government agency or a
person designated in the said notice to make, use or sell an
invention to which a patent or an application for a patent relates,
subject to payment of equitable remuneration to the proprietor of
the patent or the application for the patent.
14. Right of Appeal
An appeal shall lie from any decision
of the Comptroller refusing the grant of a patent, an application
for the re-establishment of rights or any other request of the
applicant for, or proprietor of, a patent.
Notice of appeal and a statement
setting out the grounds of appeal shall be filed in writing at the
Office of the Comptroller by the applicant or the proprietor of a
patent, within two months of being informed of the decision and if
the Comptroller considers the appeal to be admissible and well
founded, he shall rectify his decision within three months from
receiving the appeal.
15. Criminal offences
Whoever puts into circulation or sells
any article falsely representing that it is a patented article
shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine of not less than one
hundred Liri and not more than five thousand Liri.
16. Transition of Old Law to New Law
Any patent registered under the
Industrial Property (Protection) Ordinance before the coming into
force of this Act, the term of which has not upon the coming into
force of this Act, lapsed, shall enjoy the term of protection of the
duration stipulated under this Act and shall benefit from any rights
granted in respect of patents under this Act:
Provided that in the case of a patent
which has been registered, by virtue of the Industrial Property
(Protection) Ordinance, before the coming into force of this Act and
which has been granted an extension of not more than five years in
accordance with the provisions of Title II of Part I of the same
Ordinance, that patent shall enjoy, from the date of the filing of
application for the patent, the term of protection of the duration
stipulated under this Act and shall benefit from any rights granted
in respect of patents under this Act.
Provided that in the case of a patent
which has been registered, by virtue of the Industrial Property
(Protection) Ordinance, before the coming into force of this Act and
which has been granted an extension of not less than seven years and
not more than fourteen years, in accordance with the provisions of
Title II of Part I of the same Ordinance, that patent shall still
benefit from the extension granted and shall benefit from any rights
granted in respect of patents under this Act.
Registration of
trademarks,
service marks and designs.
Intellectual Property Services home.
