Registration of Patents, Utility Models and Layout Schemes of Integrated Circuits in the Dominican Republic.

Patent attorneys in the Dominican Republic. Registering a patent in the Dominican Republic was never easier.

Innovation has become an imperative need for modern businesses in an increasingly competitive environment where owning industrial property rights over new or improved product and process developments presupposes a significant competitive advantage that makes a difference in the difficult struggle for the market.

The entrepreneur who bets on innovation has an arsenal of possibilities for the protection of his creations. Through the invention patents the entrepreneur manages to protect his inventions of products or processes; utility models allow the protection of inventions of lower inventive level; and through industrial models and industrial designs, protection is provided to the two-dimensional or three-dimensional characteristics, contours, shapes and external appearance of an industrial or craft product.

What is a patent?

A patent is a title that recognizes the right to exploit the patented invention exclusively, preventing others from manufacturing, selling or using it without the owner’s consent. As a counterpart, the content of the patented invention is made available to the public for general knowledge and passes into the public domain once the term of its validity expires.

The right granted by a patent is not limited to the right of its owner to manufacture, the offer on the market and the use of the object of the patent exclusively, but, which embraces “the right to exclude others” from the manufacture, use or introduction of the patented product or procedure in commerce.

The patent may refer to a new procedure, a new product or an improvement or improvement thereof. The duration of the patent in the Dominican Republic is twenty years from the date of submission of the application. To keep it in force it is necessary to pay annual fees as of its concession. Its regulation, requirements, scope of protection and maintenance is governed by Law 20-00 and Law No. 424-06 of Implementation of DR-CAFTA.

For an invention to be subject to a patent right, it must meet and prove the concurrence of three essential requirements:
. have world novelty, that is, that the invention is not part of the state of the art at the relevant date.
. possess inventive activity, which implies that the invention is not obvious or obvious to an expert with average knowledge in the field.
. be industrially applicable, and therefore that the invention is capable of being reproduced and applied in any industry, art or trade.

Services we offer:

– Submission of patent registration applications.

– Registration of contracts and licenses for the use of patents. – Payment of annuities or patent maintenance fees.

– Patent writing, preparation of descriptions, claims and drawings of patents.

– Patent search and research and preparation of patentability, commercial viability and technological surveillance reports.

– Presentation of legal actions in administrative and judicial phase to guarantee the rights of our clients and to pursue acts of unfair competition so that our clients have a peaceful enjoyment of their patent rights.

What is the procedure to register a patent in the Dominican Republic?

1. Filing or filing a patent application with the National Office of Industrial Property (ONAPI)
Through this step the registration process begins, the documentation that must be deposited consists of the petition where the title of the invention, the identification of the applicant and the inventor and the identification of the representative or proxy must be reflected and if the indication is applicable of the priority claimed and the information referring to the international publication and the PCT application number. A description, summary, claims, drawings or drawings and proof of payment of the filing fee must be submitted, as well as the payment of the first annuity when it comes to PCT applications entering the national phase.
2. Payment of the publication fee of the patent application.
Once the National Office of Industrial Property (ONAPI) carries out the examination of the application for registration and verifies that it complies with the requirements required by law, it issues an official request for payment of the publication of the Once the payment is made, the request is published in the bulletin and a period of 45 days is allowed for interested third parties to submit comments.
3. Substantive examination of the patent application
At any time within the year after the date of publication of the application in the bulletin, the applicant makes the payment of the substantive examination fee and the National Office of Industrial Property (ONAPI) will make the request an examination to verify that It meets the positive requirements of patentability, namely, it will verify that the application has global novelty, inventive activity and industrial applicability.
4. Issuance and obtaining of the patent title.
Once the substantive examination of the application has been carried out and if it is positive, the National Office of Industrial Property (ONAPI) issues the respective invention patent title, which has a duration of 20 years from the date of application.
5. Payment of maintenance fees for rights.
During the 20 years of validity of the patent the owner must make annual payments for the maintenance of the validity of their rights, otherwise the patent expiration is declared and the applicant or holder will lose the rights on it.

What documents are needed for the registration of a patent in the Dominican Republic?

For the deposit of the registration application it is required:
1. Description, claims, summary, and drawings.
2. Apostilled power.
3. Copy of the application filed in the country of origin of the patent whose priority is claimed.
4. Document of assignment of the rights of the inventors in favor of the applicant, duly apostilled, in the case of not matching the person of the applicant with that of the inventor.