Filing of Patent in Morocco

Who can file a patent application?

Whether you are an individual or you represent a company, you can file your own patent application or appoint an agent to represent you at OMPIC.

What are the formalities for filing ?

The record of filing a patent application must include (Article 31 of Law 17/97):

• filing form of patent application B1 ;
• a description of the invention: its domain, the state of the prior art, a description of the technical problem and the solution provided by your invention and possible industrial applications; (see how to write a specification)
• one or more claims, which define the scope and limits of the protection sought;
• designs, if they are necessary to the comprehension of the invention;
• an abstract which summarizes the technical content of the invention.

Form B1 and description of the invention or a reference to a previously filed application are required when filing your patent application; otherwise your application will not be accepted.

If at the time of filing, you have not presented all the pieces, you have a period of three months from the date of the filing date for the regularization, otherwise your application is considered withdrawn. A request for continuation of proceedings can be considered to catch up (Article 14.1 of the Law 17/97).

* The request for continuation of proceedings is an application presented by the applicant or his representative by filling the form B8, in case of non respect of deadline set by the law 17/97 for the accomplishment of formalities for filing a patent application (Art.14.1 of the law 17/97).

The applicant has a period of one month from the date of filling to pay fees for filing and research. If this deadline is not met, patent application is considered withdrawn. * A request for continuation of proceedings may be considered to catch up (art. 30of Law 17/97).

If the applicant is an individual, SME or public university, the fees are reduced by 60%. (Link to tariffs).

* The request for continuation of proceedings is an application presented by the applicant or his representative by filling the form B8, in case of non respect of deadline set by the law 17/97 for the accomplishment of formalities for filing a patent application (Art.14.1 of the law 17/97).

For the purposes of national defense, disclosure and use of inventions covered by patent applications may be banned permanently or provisionally. The government authority responsible for the administration of national defense has a maximum of five months to decide whether or not put the patent in secret (art. 42 of the law 17/97).

A preliminary search report accompanied by an opinion on patentability to appreciate the novelty, the inventive step and the industrial application of your invention, is prepared by a patent examiner specialist in the technical field of the invention. The report cites the prior art, that is to say, it establishes a list of patent inventions and documents related to your invention and have been made available to the public before the filing date of your application for a patent.

The report is accompanied by an opinion on the patentability of your invention. This view seeks to interpret the research report regarding the patentability criteria (art. 43 of the law 17/97).

The patent examiner assigned to the application filing notifies the preliminary report of the applicant. It can amend the claims within the extended initial description and, where appropriate, to comment on the relevance of the documents cited, without exceeding a period of three months from the date of notification of report (art. 43.1 of the law 17/97).

On the expiracy of the 18 months deadline from the filing date, and if your invention patent application has not been withdrawn or rejected following the reasons of rejection cited in Article 41, it’s published. If the preliminary search report is established, it is published with the application, otherwise they are published separately.

After publication of the patent application, any third party may present observations concerning the patentability of the invention claimed in the application. These observations must be made within two months after the publishing of the patent application (art. 14.3 of the law 17/97). Addressed without delay, the applicant has a period of two months to provide a reply if he wants.

Depending on the preliminary search report and observations of the applicant and/ or third parties, and eventually modified demands, a final research report is stopped (art. 43.2 of the law 17/97).

After the verification of the absence of grounds for refusal according to the article 41, the patent is granted after the acquittal of fees.

The delivered patent is published with the definitive search report. Thus, the OMPIC gives the delivered invention patent, on demand, to the patent owner or his agent (art. 46 et 47 of the law 17/97).