Possible Application Examination Procedures
In accordance with the Patent Act, a request for substantive examination only can be filed.
Pursuant to the former Patent Act ("Official Gazette", Nos 173/03, 87/05, 76/07, 30/09, 128/10, 49/11, 76/13 and 46/18), the applicants had two possible applications at their disposal for examination of the requirements for the grant of a patent:
- a request for the grant of a patent on the basis of a substantive examination of a patent application, or
- a request for the grant of a patent not including a substantive examination (consensual patent).
A consensual patent as a type of the right to protect an invention was revoked by the new Act, and a new type of registration right, a utility model, is introduced.
Nevertheless, Article 158 paragraph (1) of the new Act provides for all proceedings initiated but not completed before the entry into force of the new Act to be completed under the old Act. In other words, the applicants who filed their application by 19.2.2020 still have one of two requests at their disposal to file.