Patent Protection In Bahrain

Patents are protected in Bahrain under Law No. 1 of 2004 on Patents and Utility Models, which was subsequently amended by Law No. 14 of 2006 (Bahrain Patent Law). The law provides protection for patentable inventions and for utility models.

Patent and utility model applications are registered at the Bahrain Industrial Property Office, which sits within the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Patentability

As with most countries, an invention is capable of protection in Bahrain if it is novel, involves an inventive step and is industrially applicable. Protection can also be obtained for industrial methods.

However, protection cannot be obtained for inventions which are considered to be contrary to morals or public order, scientific theories, mathematical methods, plants and animals, and methods of treatment. The law is silent on whether protection can be obtained for computer software.

Filing options

There are three ways in which an invention can be protected in Bahrain:

a national filing at the Bahrain Industrial Property Office, if appropriate claiming priority under the Paris Convention from an earlier application; a national phase entry following an international filing via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT); via the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Patent Office as a GCC Patent. The GCC Patent Law, which was approved in 1992, was implemented in Bahrain by way of Law No. 6 of 2014 meaning that patents granted by the GCC Patent Office are applicable in Bahrain. Filing requirements

A patent application in Bahrain must be filed in Arabic, with the translation being certified locally in Bahrain. There is no provision for late filing of the translation and it is therefore extremely important that sufficient time is allowed for translating the specification and claims into Arabic before the application is filed.

A simply signed Power of Attorney is also required at the time of...