PCT national phase in Ukraine

Ukraine joined the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 1991 and implemented the mechanism of unified submitting foreign patent applications into the national phase.

The deadline to enter PCT national phase in Ukraine is 31 months from the priority date.

Ukrainian Patent Office (Ukrpatent) provides the option to reinstate missed time limit by sending a request with the state the grounds and the facts which caused a delay. In case of accepting a motion, the reinstatement fee is set.

Ukraine grants patents both for inventions and utility models.

Ukraine has not joined any regional patent systems, like EPO or EAPO. It means, that the only possibility to obtain patent protection on the territory of Ukraine is to file an application under direct national or PCT procedure.

The non-resident applicants cannot communicate and file applications without the representation of a Ukrainian patent attorney.

The POA in the name of a Ukrainian patent attorney is required (simply signed, no legalization and notarization required). For filing scan copy is sufficient, but Ukrpatent requests to provide a hard copy of the POA later.

Applications are accepted in Ukrainian only. The application may be submitted in a foreign language, but with providing Ukrainian translation no later than 2 months after submission.

Patent searches in Ukraine

Duration of the registration procedure

The procedure of obtaining a patent for the invention includes a formal examination, substantive examination, and patent issuing. For utility model: formal examination and registration only.

To obtain a patent for an invention, it should be new, has an inventive step, and have industrial applicability (utility). A utility model should meet only two conditions: novelty and industrial applicability.

The formal examination lasts 2-4 months, the substantive examination – 12-15 months, and in case of successful passing of those stages, the patent is officially issued within the next 2-3 months.

Acceleration of the substantive examination procedure is possible but additional fees should be paid.

The patent application might be converted into a utility model and vice versa at any time prior to the decision of granting a patent.

General application requirements

The application should contain:

• description;

• claims;

• drawings (if referenced in the description);

• abstract.

Application materials should not contain expressions, drawings, photographs, or any other material contrary to public policy, the principles of humanity and morality, disparaging statements about inventions (utility models) and the results of other persons, and information and materials that are not relevant or unnecessary for an application.

In the formula, description, abstract and explanatory materials to descriptions usually use standardized terms and reduction, and in their absence – common in scientific and technical literature.

When using terms and notations that are not common, it is necessary to explain their meaning when first used in the text.

The scale and clarity of the images are chosen such that when reproduction with a linear reduction in size to 2/3 was possible to recognize all the details.

Documents must be prepared in Word or document texts in RTF format using one of the fonts: Times New Roman, Arial Cyr, size 9, for special character images – symbol font for image mathematical formulas – in Microsoft Equation format.

Official fees

Fees for entry into the national phase under PCT procedure in Ukraine excluding professional fees of patent attorneys (in case of electronic filing):

*Fees are reduced by 90% in case of applicants are also inventors and by 80% in case of applicants are also non-profit institutions and/or organizations.

Fees for filing applications must be paid no later than two months after submitting the application.

A registration fee must be paid within three months after the decision to grant the patent was received by the applicant. This term might be extended by an additional six months term, but the fee is increased by 50%.

Maintaining the patent

To preserve a patent right in Ukraine, renewal fees must be paid annually.

The renewal fee for the first year should be paid within four months from the date of publication of the granted patent.

The fee for each subsequent year must be paid within the last four months of the current year during which the patent is valid.

In case of late payment, within six months from the date of the expiration of the time limit, there are 50% surcharge established.

Fees for maintaining the patent in Ukraine excluding professional fees of patent attorneys (in case of electronic filing):

Fees are reduced by 80% in the case of applicants being inventors and by 60% in the case of applicants being non-profit institutions or organizations. If there are 2 or more applicants and one party is an inventor, and there is a non-profit institution, the fees are reduced by 60%.

If you have any additional questions about to PCT procedure in the national phase in Ukraine, please contact us info@craneip.com, or +380443555557