Request for examination of ARIPO patent applications.

An amendment to the Harare Protocol effective 1 January 2017 requires that a request for substantive search and examination must be made within the prescribed period for any patent applications filed on or after that date. The request is deemed to have been made once the search and examination fees have been paid.

For all national, convention or regional phase applications filed on or after 1 January 2017, the prescribed period for requesting substantive search and examination is within 3 years from the filing date of the ARIPO application. For PCT regional phase applications the filing date of the ARIPO application is the international filing date of the PCT application.

Effective 1 January 2019, the Harare Protocol has now further been amended in terms of which the prescribed period for requesting substantive search and examination of divisional applications has been set to be within 6 months from the date of filing the divisional application.

Please contact us for further information in this regard.

By Oswald Alembong, Patent Department, under supervision of Gunther Roland, Patent Attorney