Bahrain: New Requirements for Patent Applications

The Bahraini Patent Office introduced new requirements for supporting patent filings, for both national and PCT entries. These new requirements went into effect on May 1, 2014, but are retroactive to pending applications. The patent office will issue notices and set a deadline for completing the requirements for the pending cases.

For PCT national stage entries, in addition to a copy of the international publication and the complete specifications in English, applicants were required to submit the Arabic translation of the complete specifications as well as a legalized/Apostilled Power of Attorney. These had to be submitted within a non-extendable 3 month period from the filing date in Bahrain. It is required to submit a simple copy of the POA at the time of filing until the legalized original is filed.

Under the new requirements, the BPO additionally started requesting a simply signed inventor assignment form as well as a simple copy of the priority document (not certified), in English and Arabic (if different than the specifications being filed), a copy of the PCT specifications in English and Arabic (again if different than the priority and/or the specifications being filed) as well as a copy of the International Search Report. The same deadline of 3 months applies for submitting these supporting documents (4 months for the Arabic translation of the specifications). As mentioned above, these new requirements also apply to all pending patent applications in Bahrain. The table below summarizes these requirements as well as those for national applications.

This could be the BPO’s way of indicating that it is gearing towards beginning the examination and granting process of patent applications; however there have not been any concrete or official declarations to that end.

	National Filing	PCT Filing
Complete Specifications in English	At time of filing	At time of filing
Complete Specifications in Arabic	Within 4 months from filing	Within 4 months from filing
Abstract in Arabic	At time of filing	At time of filing
Copy of International Application	N/A	At time of filing
Copy of International Publication	N/A	At time of filing
Copy of the ISR	N/A	At time of filing
CD-ROM containing specifications	At time of filing	N/A
Copy of Priority Document(s)	Legalized/Apostille , within 3 months from filing	N/A
Priority Document in Arabic (including drawings)	Within 3 months from filing	Within 3 months from filing
Power of Attorney	Legalized/Apostille, within 3 months from filing	Legalized/Apostille, within 3 months from filing
Assignment from Inventors	Simple, within 3 months from filing	Simple, within 3 months from filing
Certificate of Incorporation	Simple, within 3 months from filing	N/A