Patent

by MCIC Admin | Aug 9, 2023

A patent is a right that grants the owner exclusive rights to his or her inventions for a specific period of time. Actually it is a deal between the patent holder and the public.

The new Patent Act 2022 is currently recognized as one of the legislation in Kiribati, It was successfully passed and second read at the House of Parliament since December 2022
The Trademark Regulations still under process by the Office of the Attorney General, once it is fully completed and implemented then national registrations will be initiated. Whilst in the transition period, overseas applications are still received and processed as we are now still working in accordance with the registration procedures of the Registration of United Kingdom Patents Ordinance (Cap 87) until the new Patent Act is fully enacted.

For a patent to be registrable it must be:

Novel
Must have an inventive step
Industrially applicable

Why Patent registration is matter?

With registration, it gives the patents holder exclusive rights, provide form of protection for technological advances as well as enabling the owner of a patent to take legal actions to those who exploited an invention without proper authorization.

Life of Patent protection

It lasts for ten years and it is not renewable unlike Trademark. An extended enforce for Patent protection can be allowed but cannot exceed 20 years.

*For the time being, we work in accordance and operate under the UK Patent ordinance (cap 87).Till now 254 registered patent from foreign clients. The implementation of the Kiribati Patent Act (our own legislation) is also considered in the next proceeding and optimistically followed by national registrations.

Requirements for filing an Application for New Registration on Patents