Egypt
Patent/IP in Egypt
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Intellectual Property
For a list of Patent Attorneys, please click on the 'Patent Attorneys in Egypt' tab located above.
Intellectual Property, or IP, as it is colloquially called, is characterised as legal protection for commercially precious products of human intellect. There are, generally, three forms of IP: patents, copyrights and trademarks. Although these articles are similar many some ways, they each have individual idiosyncrasies and definitions which make them unique. Perhaps most importantly, there is no physicality to intellectual property. If effectively safeguards an intangible idea or process.
Patents
Generally speaking, patents are granted to inventors for inventions. These can include anything from machinery, tools, processes, chemicals, biotechnology, software, etc.
To qualify for a patent, an inventor must invariably create something that is:
- Of patentable matter
- Unique to patentee
- Merited and can be utilised
- Innovative
- Non-obvious
Under a patent, the patentee reserves the right stop or limit others from utilising and trading the invention. Without explicit permission from the patentee, persons using the patent in any of these ways are infringing, and could be subjected to legal action.
The law on Patents and Industrial Designs grants fifteen years of patent protection from the date of application. It may be extended for an additional five year term in certain instances.
A new law, if legislated, will extend the patent protection period to twenty years. The new law would provide for a substantive examination of the patent application before it is warranted.
Egypt has adopted the Paris Convention, and a patent application filed in a member country allows the applicants to apply for a patent in Egypt within one year.
Trademarks
Trademarks are used to denote epithets, logos, symbols, slogans, etc, that are individual to a business and product. Fundamentally, the things that distinguish your product or service from a competitor's. Businesses understandably go to endless lengths to have control over their trademarks. Therefore, any persons found infringing upon them through unlawful use could be subject to legal action.
Famous examples of trademarks are Coca Cola and McDonald's.
The Trademarks Law grants a ten year protection to trademark holders from the date of application. The trademark is renewable for 10 year periods without restriction. However, an application must be renews for each period.
Copyright
Copyright gives someone to sell and reproduce a protected product, which is invariably printed work. Things like books, magazines, websites, photographs, music, film and art are common examples of copyrighted work. Copyright denotes five rights of the author, artist, etc: reproduction, distribution, adaptation, performance and display. Use of such materials or works without the explicit permission of the copyright holder is classed as infringement, and persons doing so could be subject to legal action.
Registration OfficeEgyptian Patent Office
Academy of Scientific Reaserch and Technology
101 Kasr Al Ainy Street
P.O. Box 11516
Cairo
Egypt
Telephone: + 20 79 212 91
Fax: + 20 79 212 73
Website: www.egypo.gov.eg
E-mail: patinfo@egypo.gov.eg
