Egypt – New Intellectual Property Law No. 82/2002

The New Intellectual Property Law has now come into effect in Egypt. The new law aims at amending and unifying the previously separated patents, trademarks, designs and copyright laws to bring them in line with the requirements of TRIPS to which Egypt has joined. We outline below the major features of this law with respect to Patents, Trademarks, Designs and Copyright.

Patents & Utility Models

1. A patent shall be granted independently if each amendment, improvement or addition to an invention subject to a granted patent provided that the invention is new and involves an inventive step and is industrially applicable.
2. Patents shall not be granted for:
   • An invention, exploitation of which shall affect the national security or cause grave damage to the environmental, human, animal, plant life or health.
   • Scientific discoveries, theories, mathematical methods, programs and plans.
   • Human, animal diagnostic and surgery.
   • Organs, tissues, vivid cells, natural biological materials, DNA and genome.
   • Plants, animals regardless of their rarity or peculiarity, methods of biological basis for producing plants and animals.
3. Patents shall be granted for:
   • Microorganisms, non-biological and microbiological methods for producing plants and animals.
   • Inventions dealing with or pertaining to the field of chemistry relating to foodstuff, medical drugs and pharmaceutical preparations.

   The above mentioned (a & b of point 3) will come into force as of January 2005, however, applications can at present be filed under the black box procedures.

4. Nationals of all WTO member states can benefit from the advantages, privileges or immunity granted by any other law to the nationals of any country except what relates to the rights stipulated in this section unless such advantages, privileges or immunity stem from:
   • Judicial assistance agreements or general agreements for the enforcement of the law.
   • Agreements relating to the protection of intellectual property rights that were valid before January 1995.

   The above mentioned (a & b of point 3) will come into force as of January 2005, however, applications can at present be filed under the black box procedures.

5. The protection period of a patent is 20 years (non-renewable) as of the filing date in Egypt.
6. The Patentee is entitled to prevent any party from exploiting their patent. However, the Patentee cannot prevent other parties from importing, using, selling or distributing the products subject to his invention, unless the patentee is marketing such product or licensing the same.
7. If the application is with respect to microorganisms, the applicant should give a full disclosure of such organisms and provide a living culture of the same.
8. The acceptance of the patent application shall not be published before the expiry of one year as of the fling date in Egypt. The application will remain confidential within this period.
9. The Patent Office with consent of the Ministerial Committee shall grant compulsory licenses for the exploitation of inventions that relate to social security environment, health and foodstuff protection… etc. The patentee must immediately be notified of such compulsory license decision.
10. A patent for a UTILITY MODEL is granted in accordance with this law in respect of each new technical addition, structure or formation, means, devices, preparations or production methods thereof. The applicant may convert it to a patent application or vice versa.
11. The protection period of utility model is seven years (non-renewable).
12. Annuities are to be paid each year up to the end of protection period.
13. The applicant of a black box application is entitled to request the Patent Office to grant him an exclusive marketing right in Egypt for his product after he fulfils the requirements stipulated by the law.
14. LAYOUT-DESIGNS OF INTERGRATED CIRCUITS enjoy a protection period of 10 years as of the filing date or the first commercial use/ exploitation in Egypt whichever is earlier.
15. Undisclosed information is protected under the new law.
16. Plant Varieties are also protected under the new law. The protection period is 25 years for trees and vineyards and 20 years for other agricultural crops as of the filing date.

Trademarks, Trade Descriptions, Geographical Indications

1. The owner of a well-known trademark (internationally and in Egypt) shall be entitled to protection even if the subject mark is not registered in Egypt. The Trademark office will reject any application identical to a well-known mark.
   This will also to the products that are not similar to those distinguished by the well-known trademark; if the well-known trademark is registered in one of the WTO countries and Egypt and the use of the trademark on dissimilar products shall suggest to third parties that there is a connection between the owner of the well-known mark and such products, and that such use will prejudice the interest of the owner of the well-known trademark.
2. The right of trademark owners is preventing third parties from importing, using, selling or distributing products distinguished by the subject mark will be exhausted if such owners market these products in any country or give license to a third party.
3. Any interested party may file a notice of opposition against a published trademark application within 60 days from the date of publication. A reply to the said must be submitted within thirty days as of the date of receiving the notification, otherwise the application will be considered as abandoned.
4. A trademark can now be assigned apart from the business or place of business.
5. The grace period for renewal has become 6 months (instead or THREE).
6. The geographical indications determine the origin of the product in a territory or a region within a WTO member state of having a reciprocal relation with Egypt as long as a given quality, reputation or other characteristics of the goods are essentially attributable to its geographical indication.
7. The following persons will be liable to imprisonment for not less than two months and to a fine no less than five thousand pounds and not more than twnety thousand pounds or to one of these penalties in case of:
   • Counterfeiting a registered mark or imitating it in a manner that could deceive the public or in the case of fraudulent use of a counterfeit or imitated trademark.
   • Using a counterfeit or imitated trademark.
   • Using on their products a trademark that belongs to other parties.
   • Knowingly selling, offering for sale, distributing or retaining for the purpose of sale products that is counterfeited, imitated or unrightfully applied.

Industrial Designs & Models

1. Implementation of an examination system that was not available under the previous law.
2. The protection period of an industrial design or model is ten years, renewable for a further five year period.

Copyright

1. In addition to the protection provided by the previous copyright law, the new one stipulates the protection of related rights to the WTO member states.
2. Protection is provided for the national folklore.
3. The exclusive right is no longer limited to exploitation only. But also includes the right of the author in licensing the copyright work to third parties and preventing them from exploiting it by any means.
   The right of the author in preventing third parties from importing, using, selling or distributing his copyright work is exhausted in accordance with this law, if he exploits or markets it in any country or licenses it to a third party.
4. The financial rights on copyright work published without the name of the author or under an alias are protected for a period of fifty years as of the date of its publication or the date of which it was made available to public for the first time, whichever precedes.
   However if the author is known, specified or identified, the protection period lasts for his/ her entire lifetime and for a further fifty years as of the date of the author’s death.
5. Any person may apply to the competent ministry to be granted a personal license for copying and/ or translating any copyright work protected by the provisions of this law without the necessity of obtaining a consent from the author provided that the author or successor of title receives a fair compensation and that such license does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the copyright work or causes unjustified damage to the legitimate rights.
6. Should the parties in dispute agree on arbitration, the Provisions of the Arbitration Law shall prevail.
7. The competent minister shall issue a license for commercial or professional exploitation of the copyright work, audio record, performance or broadcast program falling in the public domain against a specific fee not exceeding one thousand pounds.