Legal basis concerning the grant of patents for inventions:

Law on Patents and Utility Model Registration: 

Step 1 : Explanations

The term of validity of a patent is 20 years from the date the application is filed (Filing date).

The filing date of the application shall be the date of receipt at the Patent Office of the following documents:

1. A request for the grant of a patent containing the title of the invention and the data identifying the applicant, in the Bulgarian language;

2. A description of the invention, disclosing at least its essential elements.

In addition to the compulsory documents above-mentioned the patent application shall contain:

1. One or more claims;

2. Drawings, if needed to understand the invention;

3. An abstract;

4. A written statement and a priority certificate, where priority is claimed;

The application shall be accompanied by a document certifying payment of the fees for filing, formal requirements examination, preliminary examination and admissibility, patent claims and priority claims.

The documents in the application shall be submitted in the Bulgarian language; the description, claims, drawings and abstract shall be filed in three copies. If the above-mentioned documents are filed in a language other than Bulgarian, the filing date may be maintained if they are furnished in the Bulgarian language within three

months of that date. This term is non-extendable.

The claims, written description, drawings and abstract are presented on additional sheets. Documents in the application are submitted in the Bulgarian language, the description, claims, drawings and abstract shall be submitted in three copies.

If the applicant files the application through an industrial property representative, powers of attorney shall also be attached to the application.

The request for the grant of a patent shall contain: the name and address of the applicant and of his industrial property representative, where appropriate; the name and address of the inventor; a written statement as to the true inventor; the title of the invention and the particulars of any claimed priority — number, date and country of the priority document, as well as a written statement of preparedness for licensing, if the applicant so wishes.

The description of the invention shall contain the title and the technical field to which the invention belongs: the prior art, as far as known to the applicant, with citation of the documents in which it is described (usually patent documents): clear and adequate disclosure of the essential technical features of the invention and its advantages: and at least one embodiment (presentation) of the invention using examples, if necessary, and reference to the drawings, if any, as well as the manner of working the invention in industry.

 Drawings illustrate the invention and may be needed to understand the invention. The description and the drawings are used to interpret the claims.

 The Patent Claims are very important!

The extent of legal protection is determined by the claims.

The claims shall define the matter for which legal protection is sought and therefore they must be clear and be supported by the description.

The rule – one patent claim must be expressed in one single sentence. 

•The abstract (a summary that includes the important technical aspects) serves for information and search purposes only.

The Patent Office conducts Examination of the Formal Requirements as well as Preliminary Examination and Examination as to Legal Protection Admissibility. These procedures continue several months: 

Formal Requirements:

If deficiencies are ascertained, the applicant shall be notified thereof and is given a three-month time limit to correct them. If the applicant fails to respond or to make the corrections within the above time limit, a decision shall be taken to terminate the procedure or the application shall be deemed to be withdrawn.

 Step 2: Correction of deficiencies in the Patent Application (if any):

Preliminary Examination:

This includes, for example, checking the compliance with the rule of Unity of the Patent Application, under Art. 40 (1) Patent Law – whether the application shall relate to one invention only or to a group of inventions so linked as to form a single general inventive concept.

Where the application relates to a group of inventions, the requirement of unity shall be considered satisfied if there is a technical relationship between the inventions involving one or more identical or similar specific technical features. 

If the requirements concerning unity of inventions are not satisfied, the Examination Department shall propose to the applicant that he divides the application within a three-month time limit. In this case, the date of filing or the priority date, as appropriate, of the initially filed application shall be regarded as the filing date of those applications.
An application may be amended during the patent grant proceedings until such time as a decision is taken. The amendments may not extend beyond the content of the application as filed. 

If deficiencies are ascertained, the applicant shall be informed thereof and shall be given three months to eliminate them. If the applicant fails to respond within this period or fails to remove the deficiencies, a decision shall be taken to terminate the procedure. 

Examination as to Legal Protection Admissibility:

This examination verifies that the Patent Application is related to an invention and that the invention is not excluded from patentability (check-up for the conformity

with the rules of Patentability and Exceptions to Patentability – Art. 6 and Art. 7 Patent Law.) 

If deficiencies are ascertained,  the applicant shall be notified thereof and is given a three months to submit his comments. If the applicant fails to respond or his arguments are groundless, a decision shall be taken to refuse grant of a patent.

The decision may be appealed before the Disputes Department.

Note! Until the expiration of 13 months from the filing date of the application or the priority date, as appropriate, the applicant may file a search and examination Request ( http://www1.bpo.bg/images/stories/blanki/patents_form3.doc) .
Along with the request the applicant has to pay search and examination fees, as well as a publication fee for the application. In case of failure to pay the fees at the time of filing the request, they may still be paid at twice the rate within one month following the filing date of the request.

Where no search and examination request is filed with regard to the patent application, and/or the search, examination and publication fees are not paid, the patent application may be transformed into an application for utility model registration at the request of the applicant. If no request for transformation is filed,the patent application shall be deemed to be withdrawn and the applicant shall be informed thereof.

However, parallel application for utility model registration is also an option. Accorning to the Patent Law (Art. 75b) the applicant in a patent application may also file an application for utility model registration for the same invention invoking the filing date and the priority date of the patent application.

A patent application relating to the subject matter referred to biotechnological inventions, methods, chemical compounds or the use thereof may not be transformed into an application for utility model registration. 

 Step 3:  Publication of a mention for application and its legal consequences

A mention shall be published in the Official Bulletin of the Patent Office of a patent application with respect to which a request has been filed and the fees have been paid. Such publication follows expiration of the 18 month after the filing dateor, if priority has been claimed, from the date of priority. 

After the publication the Patent Office provides to any person free access to the description, claims and drawings. Within 3 months following publication of a mention of the application any person may file written substantiated objections concerning the patentability of the subject matter of the application.

Provisional protection is provided for the period from the publication of a mention of the patent application up to the publication of a mention of the grant of a patent. The scope of such provisional protection is defined by the claims as formulated in the application.

The applicant shall have the right to equitable remuneration to be paid by any person who without his consent has used the invention during the period of provisional protection, provided that a patent is granted.

Patent infringement proceedings may be instituted by the applicant prior to the grant, immediately after a mention of the application has been published. Nevertheless, the decision of the Court will depends on the Patent Office’s decision to grant a patent. 

 Step 4: Search Report and statement concerning the patentability

An examiner from the Examination Department investigates the state of the art to check whether the invention is new (Rule of Novelty).
The state of the art is held to comprise everything made available to the public by means of a written or oral description, by use, or in any other way, anywhere in the world, before the filing date or the priority date, as appropriate, of the patent application.

Then the examiner draws up a search report and a written statement concerning the patentability of the invention.

The report gives answers on the following decisive questions: 

Is the invention new, does the invention involve an inventive step and is it susceptible of industrial application?  If the answer is Yes the effort was worth. 

The report, the statement and the written objections (from any third person), if any, are sent to the applicant.  Within 3 months of the receipt of these documents the applicant may amend the application and comment on the opinion and objections. 

Where, following the examination and the correspondence with the applicant, it is revealed that the invention is patentable, the examiner from the Examination Department  invites the applicant in writing to pay the patent annuities until such time as a decision is taken to grant a patent, as well as the current patent annuity,  together with the patent grant fee and the fee for publishing the mention of the patent grant. 

 Step 5: Get a patent – Decision to grant a patent

The examiner from the Examination Department takes a decision to grant a patent, provided that the above-mentioned fees are paid.

If the applicant fails to pay the fees, the application shall be deemed to be withdrawn. 

A mention of the grant of a patent shall be published in the Official Bulletin of the Patent Office right after the expiration of 3 months following the decision taking date. A patent shall be granted within 1 month following the publication.