The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) entered into force in Qatar on August 3, 2011. Even though this means that any “international” patent application can now include the designation of Qatar, it will not be possible to enter into the national phase in the country for the time being. In fact, filing patent applications in Qatar is currently not available because there is no clear set-up that has been established to accept these type of applications, even though a patent law was introduced in the country back in 2006.
Therefore, the Qatari authorities must first amend the patent law to include provisions related to national phase PCT applications and should complete the set up of the Patent Office in order to start receiving patent applications. It is not known when will these changes occur but we will keep you updated in due course.
Should you have any questions, or require any additional information, please contact us at info@sabaip.com