The Patent Office in Oman announced that official equivalent patent searches are now possible. Accordingly, it is possible to search the patent database for patent applications filed or entered in Oman using the typical bibliographic data of the priority applications or PCT publications.
In case the searches relate to pharmaceuticals patents, the following criteria may additionally be used:
- Generic name
- Chemical name/formula
- Main group/class/category
- Originator
This new capability is a welcome service to enhance freedom-to-operate search and analysis type projects in Oman, as well as allow generic pharmaceuticals from gauging the risk of commercializing their products in that market.
Since Oman is party to the regional GCC Patent System, it is still advisable to continue performing these type of searches concurrently with the GCC Patent Office in addition to this recent ability to expand the search to include possible national patent filings.
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