The Estonian Patent Act

The Estonian Patent Act Came Into Force On 23 May 1994. Since 5 February 1994, Estonia is a member state of WIPO and since 24 August 1994, a member state of the Paris Convention and of the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Since 14 September 1996, Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure was enacted. Estonia is a full member of the European Patent Organization since 1 July 2002.

We are pleased to present a general outline of the said law.

The Estonian Patent Act (full text) General provisions for filing a patent application Any foreign applicant shall be represented by an Estonian patent attorney. The corresponding power of attorney, simply signed and mentioning the name and position of signatory, shall be submitted on the date of filing of the application or within two months from that date.

A patent application shall contain the following documents:

request for the grant of a patent, containing data of the applicant(s) and author(s), and the title of the invention; specification, claims and abstract of the subject matter of the invention; priority documents if priority is claimed; the documents shall be filed within 4 months from the date of filing of the patent application; power of attorney; document proving payment of the fee. The patent application shall be filed in Estonian, except the abstract, which shall be filed in Estonian and English. The translations into Estonian shall be filed within 3 months from the date of receipt of the application at the Patent Office.

The Patent Office shall accord a number to the patent application approved for examination and notify the applicant of the filing date and the number of the patent application.

Examination In the course of the substantive examination, the Patent Office shall examine the invention to ascertain if it meets the criteria of patentability. The invention is deemed patentable if it is novel, involves an inventive step and is industrially applicable.

The extent of patent protection shall be determined by the terms of the patent claims. The subject matter of the invention shall be presented in the patent claims as a set of essential features of the invention. The patent claims shall consist of one claim or several claims.

Priority The date of filing with the Patent Office of the first patent application or utility model registration application shall be deemed the priority date. If the patent application has...