Applicants can now choose not to pay the annuity fees after the third year [from the date of filing or from the international filing date if the application is a PCT-national phase application] if the patent application is still pending. Once the Patent Office issues a grant decision, the applicant must pay all overdue annuities along with the grant fees, while the remaining subsequent annuities can be paid on their respective due dates.

For more information, please contact qatar@qumsieh.com.

Historical Background
As you may know, on 3 May 2011, Qatar deposited its instrument of accession to the PCT, and on 3 August 2011 Qatar become a member of the PCT.

The QPTO started to receive patent applications beginning of November 2012, without collecting official fees due to the delay in issuing the fee regulations, which were not determined and effective until 12 January 2015.

As for applications filed on or after 1 January 2015, the filing fees must be paid along with the application, likewise, annuities must be timely paid in the required timeframe, which is calculated based on the international filing date.

If you have questions related to the above or our practice, please contact our Qatar office directly at qatar@qumsieh.com.

Late payment, however, is allowed for a period of 3 months (i.e. until 30 June) and will be subject to a 100% penalty fine.

The above applies to pending applications as well as granted patents.

If you have any questions, please contact us at patents@qumsieh.com.

Official fees have to be paid within three (3) months starting from the beginning of the year, making the deadline to pay 31 March of each year.

Late payment, however, is allowed for a period of 3 months (i.e. until 30 June) and will be subject to a 100% penalty fine.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at saudi-arabia@qumsieh.com.

For more information please contact us at our email bahrain@qumsieh.com.

Furthermore it has been confirmed that all the due annuities of the previous applications must be settled before 31 December 2009 to avoid a lapse of the applications.

The Head of the Intellectual Property Department in Oman has issued a Notice dated 21 October 2009, distributed on 28 October, directed to the Patent Agents, requesting them to settle all dues related to PCT annuities, as well as completing the missing documents in order to start the substantive examination.

All due annuities have to be paid within 2 months and before the end of 2009. The annuities are calculated from the filing date at the Omani Patent Office and the filing fees are included in the first annuity.

It is worth mentioning that the Intellectual Property Department is reviewing the official fees for patents, and it is expected to increase them at the beginning of next year. Therefore, it is suggested to settle all dues as early as possible to avoid payment of the higher rates.

Kindly note that we do not need any document to attend for payment of annuities even the application initially was not filed through us.

For any other question, please don´t hesitate to contact us by e-mail.

As of 6 June 2009, the Registrar of Patents issued a Decision in which he changed the calculation of the dates of the annuities due on a PCT application.

Earlier annuities were calculated as from the filing date of the national phase application in Egypt, while now, they are counted from the PCT international filing date. Accordingly, all due annuities on the national phase applications of PCT have to be paid retroactively according to the new calculation within 6 months from the date of decision – June 6, 2009 – otherwise, the application will lapse.