Presentation of the Moroccan Patent System

Presentation of the Moroccan Patent System

Major phases of the developement of Moroccan IP system : -Phase one : 1916 Law 1995 : Morocco became member of WTO align its law with international standard (TRIPS) -Phase 2: creation of OMPIC (Law 13-99 of 9/3/2000) Public administration (young and modern) management and financial autonomy

Major phases of the developement of Moroccan IP system : - Phase 3: 18/12/2004 : Law 17-97 entered into force 20/02/2006 : revision of the Law 17-97 following the FTA with USA - Phase 4: 18/12/2014 : the Law 23-13 which complete and modify the Law 17-97 entered into force

Evolution of patent applications : Année 2004 2005 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Nbre demand es 561 660 1010 1007 1022 1017 1118 1096 1021 1243 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 2004 2005 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Some figures Evolution of the number of patent applications 1200 1000 800 1022 1017 853 821 803 1118 1096 743 797 1021 600 400 200 166 196 315 353 224 0 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Dépot d'origine marocaine dépôt d'origine étrangère dépôt national Evolution of patent applications by type of applicants 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Universities Research centers Companies Individuals 39 38 58 138 158 109 1 6 16 25 32 31 26 32 26 49 36 14 86 93 96 103 127 70

International patent application within the PCT 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 19 28 43 55 59 International patent application by fields of technology (year 2015) Pharmaceutique et biotechnologie Mécanique 10% 10% 7% 5% 19% 10% Dispositifs de commande Transport Electronique & électrique 8% 8% 10% 12% Autres domaine Télécommunications Chimie Informatique Instrument

The new Moroccan Patent System Features of the new system : system with search report -Establishment of search report and patentability opinion -Applicant is given the opportunity to amend his claims -On this basis, the patent is granted or the application is refused

THE PUBLIC 2months 3months THE APPLICANT OMPIC Filing of the patent application Art. 30 and 31 Divisional application Art. 38.1 Administrative review Art. 32 and 33 18months Publication of the patent application and the preliminary search report after expiry of 18 months Art. 44 Preliminary search report and opinion on patentability (PRROP) Art. 43 Notification to applicant Filing amended claims and/or observations by applicant Art. 43.1 20months Observations by third parties Art. 14.3 Communicate observations to applicant 22months Applicant's reply to the third party observations Publication of the granted Patent with final search report and opinion on patentability Final search report and opinion on patentability Art. 43.2 Total or partial rejection of the application Art. 41 Grant of the Patent Art. 46 Observations to review the decision Art. 14.2

Challenges to implement the new system : 1- capacity building : -Human ressources : recruitement of patent examiners (from 3 on 2008 to 20 on 2016) Training on patent examination with the support of EPO (search techniques and tools, complexe issues ) -Search tools: Access and active use of EPOQUENET from September 2008 Access to patent private databases (Derwent of Thomson ; Orbit / Questel) Access to the most important NPL private databases (Elsevier/science direct), via WIPO programs

Challenges to implement the new system : 2- Practice, Practice and Practice : -Propose a search report as a paid service for moroccan applicants to evaluate the relevance of their inventions - Systematically preparation of search reports for all regularised applications from residents for internal use

Challenges to implement the new system : 3- Organisation : - 4 clusters (mechanic and electric (6)/ physics and ICT (5)/ chemistry and biochemistry (3), pharmaceutics (6)) - Each examiner is in charge of a set of IPC codes -Validation meeting between the examiners of the same cluster to harmonize the way of doing we have noticed a significant improvment of the level and the quality of the work done by our examiners

New opportunity provided by the new system: Validation system 4 Legal framework : - Signature of validation agreement between Morocco and Europeen Patent Organisation, applicable from march 2015 (Morocco recognize the work done by EPO, and do not reexamine applications which take this route) moroccan patent examiners focus on the examination of national applications and give more support to national innovation

New opportunity provided by the new system: Validation system 4 Legal framework : Articles: 50.1 to 50.5 50.1: a patent application and a patent issued by an IP Office of a State or a community of States, as designated by regulation, hereinafter referred to as the validation Office, shall produce the same effects at the request of the applicant and shall be subject to the same conditions as a patent application or a patent filed with the IP Office, subject to the provisions of Articles which follow below.

New opportunity provided by the new system: Validation system Validation states (in force): -MA Morocco -MD Republic of Moldova

New opportunity provided by the new system: Validation system 1:international PCT applications 2:Direct Filing 3:International applications entering the Moroccan national phase 4:international applications entering the regional European phase 5:Direct European applications 6:Granted European patents validated in Morocco

New opportunity provided by the new system: Validation system Legal texts: Law 17/97 as amended and completed by the law 23/13. Information note on the procedure for the validation of European patents in Morocco.

LE PUBLIC 3 mois LE DEPOSANT OMPIC Organisme de Validation (OV) Dépôt de demande de brevet auprès ou désignant l OV = Requête de validation au Maroc Art. 50.2 Publication de la demande de brevet + rapport de recherche Publication par l OMPIC de la mention de la requête de validation Art. 50.2 Publication des revendications déposées auprès de l OV = Protection provisoire Art. 50.3 Paiement des droits de validation dans les délais. Art. 50.2 Demande de publication des revendications déposées auprès de l OV en AR ou FR Art. 50.3 Délivrance /publication du brevet par l OV Publication de la mention du brevet validé Publication par l OMPIC du brevet validé Présentation des revendications du brevet validé en AR ou FR dans le délai+ paiement des droits exigibles Art. 50.4 Brevet Validé au Maroc Art. 50.4 OMPIC publie la mention de modification Modification suite à une procédure à l OV Annulation du brevet devant OV Art. 50.4 Protection sans effet dès l origine Art. 50.4

Other projects : 1- Publication Server : http://patent.ompic.ma/ - Project conducted with EPO on 2010 - Main forces : (regularity, quality, standard format) data exchange (almost all our patent data is in Espacenet, Epoque, Patenscope)

Moroccan Patent System Other projects : 2 - IPAS : - Project conducted with WIPO (moderne and flexible tool to manage patent applications workflow) - Better automation of patent procedures

Moroccan Patent System Other projects : 3 - ArabPat : http://ab.espacenet.com/ - ARABPAT is a patent information dissemination platform in Arab countries. - It s a member of ESPACENET family - It s a cooperative project between the member countries of the Agadir Agreement (Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia), but open to all Arab countries (KSA joined on 2016) - It s supported by the EPO, the WIPO and the OMPIC.

Moroccan Patent System Other projects : 4 Examination guidelines : - Inspired from EPO guidelines - It s a cooperative project between the INNORPI and OMPIC with support of EPO

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