Patent registration in Latvia

For registration of a patent, application has to be submitted to the Latvian Patent Office. The description of the invention has to disclose the invention in a manner sufficiently clear and complete so that a specialist would be able to carry out this invention. The invention shall not be in conflict with the scientifically attested laws of nature. The opposition against patent may be filed by third persons claiming the novelty of the patent within 9 months period starting from patent publication (state fee for opposition – 200 EUR).

Brief summary of the patent application process.

Patent application with respective documentation shall be submitted into Latvian Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia. Patent Office makes the examination of the documents and whether the filled documents conform to requirements of the Patent Law. If the submitted documents conform, the Patent Office sets the patent application filing date. As the next step Patent Office performs the formal examination of the patent application, after what shall be set the date for publication of the application.

The publication shall be made within 18 month from the filing date or – if a priority has been requested – from the first earlier priority date of the application. After the substantive examination of a patent application shall be carried out and if the application corresponds to the requirements of the Law, there shall be taken decision regarding the patent grant.

After the State fee has been paid by applicant, the Patent Office registers the patent in the State Patent Register, publishes the notification regarding the grant of a patent in the Official Gazette of the Patent Office and issues the patent to the owner of the patent.

During the examination of the documents and application the applicant is able to eliminate the deficiencies in submitted documents if any in the Law provided term and until the grant of a patent is published, the applicant has the right to make amendments in the patent application once, upon its own initiative if they do not change the essence of the invention and do not go beyond the scope of the claims, as well as applicant may divide it in two or more applications by maintaining the date and priority of the initial application for each of them. The decisions of the Patent Office are appealable.

Detailed search and examination before grant?

No - before grant the Patent Office performs mostly formal examination of the patent application and respective documents, however there shall not be carried out detailed search.

Follow requirements of EPC?

Yes

Patentability requirements/details:

- Novelty

- Inventive Step

- Industrial Application

- Added Matter

- Sufficiency

- Exclusion from Patentability

List of exclusions to patentability

1) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematic methods;

2) aesthetic creations;

3) schemes, intellectual activities, rules and methods for commercial activities and games, as well as computer programs;

4) methods for presentation of information;

5) inventions whose making public or utilisation is in conflict with public order or the principles of morality accepted in society, however, the decision not to grant a patent shall not be taken only on the basis of the fact that such utilization is prohibited by a regulatory or administrative enactment;

6) plant or animal varieties or to the basically biological methods for the acquisition of plant or animal varieties;

7) biotechnological inventions pertaining to human cloning, modification of the genetic identity of human beings in germ cells, utilisation of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes, methods for modifying the genetic identity of animals likely to cause them suffering without any substantial medical benefit to people or animals, as well as animals resulting from such methods;

8) human body in different stages of formation and development and a simple discovery of one of its elements, including the sequence or partial sequence of a gene.

In states 1-4 mentioned subject patenting is not possible only if the patent protection for these subjects as such is sought.

Does the Patent Office carry out detailed examination against the patentability criteria before grant?

Yes – However, the examination shall be carried out only regarding few criteria of patentability

Brief summary of the patent examination process?

First the Patent Office shall carry out documentation and patent application formal examination. In later stage of application examination there shall be performed substantive examination of a patent application during which shall be verified or the invention corresponds to industrial application, invention subject, unity of an invention, biotechnological invention requirements, claim formatting rules, sufficiency and added matter requirements. However during the substantive examination shall not be carried out examination of the patentability of the invention in conformity with the requirements of novelty, inventive step and industrial application.