– Patent Regulation of the Cooperation Council States, as approved on December 21-23, 1992, by the Supreme Council of GCC in its 13th session held in Abu-Dhabi, and as amended on November 27-29, 1999, and its Implementing Bylaws of April 8-9, 2000, in force since August 16, 2000. The Patent Regulation was amended by the Supreme Council's decision in its 41st session held on January 5, 2021, to approve "The law amending some provisions of the Patent Regulation of the Cooperation Council States".

Note: in a statement made on its official website, following the meeting of the Supreme Council of the GCC on January 5, 2021, the GCC Patent Office (GCCPO) announced that as of January 6, 2021, it was no longer accepting new patent application filings. In January 2023, the GCC Patent Office (GCCPO) announced that new patent application filings are again being accepted. At the time of writing, only Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait have confirmed that they will refer their national applications to the GCC Patent Office.

Kind of protection: patents of invention.

Applicant: the inventor or his assignee; in the latter case, the inventor’s name must be cited.

Foreigners and nationals not living in the country: the name, surname and place of residence of the authorized agent of the applicant in the GCC member States should be mentioned. Protection is valid for twenty years from the filing date or from the priority date in case of filing a provisional application.

Naming of the inventor: compulsory. If the applicant is different from the inventor, an assignment deed from the inventor to the applicant is to be submitted.

Notion of the invention: the definition of an invention includes any new product, method of manufacture, or an improvement in either of them.

Novelty: absolute worldwide novelty is required. An invention is new only if it is not anticipated by the prior art, which covers anything disclosed to the public anywhere and at any time, by means of a written or oral disclosure, by use, or in any other way before the relevant filing date or the priority date validity claimed. There is no novelty grace period.

Exceptions to patent protection: (a) discoveries, scientific theories, mathematical methods and computer programs; (b) principles, rules and techniques of doing business; performing purely mental acts or practicing any game; (c) varieties of plants, animal species or biological processes used to produce plants or animals. Sophisticated biological operations and the results of these operations are excluded; (d) methods of treatment of the human or animal body, whether surgical or clinical, and methods of diagnosis applicable to the human or animal body. However, this does not apply to the products used in any of these processes. Also, a patent is not granted if the invention itself or its application is contrary to the Islamic concepts.

Process and product claims: are acceptable. When a patent is granted for a process, any product made directly by such a process is also protected.

Priority: the GCC Patent Office is not a member of the Paris Convention. However, priority can be claimed based on a foreign application -twelve months calculated from the filing date of the first corresponding foreign application.

Territory covered: Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.

Filing requirements for an application for a GCC Patent (to be sent to resident agent):
1. A power of attorney (e-copy) executed by the applicant, duly apostilled or legalized up to the Consulate of any GCC country, namely, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates;
2. A certified copy of the Certificate of Incorporation or an extract from the Commercial Register of the applicant's company (e-copy), duly apostilled or legalized as for the power of attorney;
3. A deed of assignment (e-copy) executed by the inventor(s), assigning their patent rights to the applicant, also apostilled or legalized as for the power of attorney;
4. A certified copy of the priority document and a simple English translation thereof, if the document is not in English language;
5. E-copy of the specification in English, prepared strictly in the following order:
– The title of the invention
– Technical field
– Prior art or background of the invention
– Disclosure of the invention
– Description of the drawings
– Full description of the invention (detailing the methods to execute the invention, its industrial application, preferably with examples, statistics, etc.)
– Claims
– Drawings, if any
– Abstract of the invention;
6. The Arabic title and abstract only is required.

Notes: an application can be filed provisionally with the English text of the specification. The GCC Patent Office only requires e-copies of the supporting documents (items 1, 2, and 3 above) (fully scanned copy in color showing the Consulate's legalization stamp). The original documents should be retained by the applicant and submitted in case the GCC Patent Office requests the same. Other formal legalized documents should be submitted within three months from the filing date. All documents shall be enclosed with translations into both Arabic and English, if drafted in any other language. 

Electronic filing: is available on the Internet site of the Patent Office.

Examination: the Department of Patents examines the applications upon a request of a member country. If it is found that certain conditions prescribed under the regulations are not fulfilled, the applicant will be notified of it and will be given a period of three months to complete the application. Upon fulfillment of the formal examination, the application is submitted to the competent authority (Austrian and Chinese Patent Offices) for substantial examination after payment of a fee.

Publication: the decisions of granting patents are published.

Amendments: it is possible to make a voluntary amendment providing that the proposed amendments shall not introduce an essential matter not disclosed in the original application.

Divisions: a divisional application should be filed before the issuance of the final decision against the original application, whether allowance or rejection.

Objections of the Office: any objection raised by the Patent Office shall be reported in Official Office Action and a response should be filed before the lapse of three months from the Office action’s issuance date.

Secrecy: the GCC Patent Office publishes the granted patents only, and the pending applications are confidential.

Opposition: any interested party may appeal against a decision within three months as from the date of publication and demand total of partial revocations.

Beginning of protection: if it is found through substantial examination that an invention fulfills the prescribed conditions, the patent is granted, with protection validity as from the local filing date or from the priority date (if claimed).

Duration of protection: twenty years from the date of filing.

Annuities: a patentee is subject to annuity payments, starting from the year subsequent to the application filing date, and payable within the first three months of each year (January through March) regardless of the filing or priority date.

Annuity grace period: a late payment with fine is allowed within three months, ending on June 30 of each year.

Amendment of issued patents: are limited to the bibliographical page only.

Employee’s rights: the ownership of a patent belongs to the employer if the invention is made in execution of a contract or a commitment for the execution of inventive efforts of if the employer proves that the inventor would not have achieved such an invention had he not used the facilities, means or information made available by the employer. The employee has the right to receive a remuneration to be agreed upon either amicably or to be assessed by a committee in the light of the various circumstances of the employment contract and the economic significance on the invention. Any particular agreement which prevents such rights from the employee is invalid. Also, the preceding provisions apply to the employees of government departments. A patent application submitted by the employee-inventor within the two years following the termination of his services is deemed made during his service.

Marking: legally not required.

Working: the patentee has to exploit the invention covered by the patent on a sufficient industrial scale in the GCC countries within three years from the date of grant. (See also: “Compulsory license” and “Infringement” below).

Rights of prior user: despite the grant of a patent, an establishment that, in good faith, manufactures, uses an industrial manufacturing process of a product, or makes serious preparations therefor, before the filing date of an application by another person, or before the priority date of the application pertaining to the same product or process, shall have the right to continue such acts. Assignment or transfer of the said right is only permitted with the other elements of the establishment.

Assignment: possible. The assignment must be made in writing and duly notarized and legalized by the competent authority. It should be recorded and published in the Bulletin.

Licensing: must be registered at the GCC Patent Office.

Multiple licensing: the granting of a license does not prevent the patentee from utilizing the patent or from granting a license on the same patent to another person, unless otherwise restricted in the original license agreement. The licensee may not assign the rights and privileges conferred on him unless such right is expressly stipulated in the license agreement.

Compulsory license: if a patent has not been exploited or insufficiently exploited in the GCC countries within the period of three years, the GCC Patent Office may grant a compulsory license for exploiting the patent to any person upon application.

Patent exploitation by the governments: the governments of the Cooperation Council States, should public interest so require, shall take a decision that one of its agencies can exploit an invention, even if the patent owner has refused that, subject to the acceptance of the Board of Directors and payment of a fair compensation stipulated in the exploitation decision. Their decision and any decisions issued by the GCC Patent Office are subject to an appeal before the Grievances Committee and then before the competent authority in accordance with the procedures stipulated in the national laws of the host country.

Nullification: an invalidation request can be filed before the Grievance Committee.

Infringement: the owner of the patent has the right to file an action before the Grievance Committee against any person who industrially exploits his invention in any GCC State, without his consent; the following actions is considered as industrial exploitation: (1) the manufacturing of the patent product; (2) the use of a patented method of manufacturing.