The Portuguese Industrial Property Office (INPI) has entered into a cooperation protocol with the European Patent Office (EPO) that provides for the EPO to carry out research and opinion for national patent applications.
This search outsourcing will be limited to 400 applications per calendar year and applies only to national patent applications, without claim of priority, from applicants residing in a Contracting State of the European Patent Convention, and who fall into one of the following situations:
1) Natural persons (up to 5 search reports per calendar year).
2) Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
3) Universities, research centers or non-profit organizations (up to 10 research reports per calendar year).
In the event that there are several applicants in the national patent application, all of them must belong to the aforementioned typologies.
The EPO report will be issued in English and will be carried out on the basis of a translation of the claims into English that may be provided by the applicant or carried out by the INPI. No additional fees will apply for these procedures.
For more information or any question please contact us (sgcr@sgcr.pt).
