Types of requests related to the service:
To be provided with the service, the applicant / patent owner submits a request for temporary protection / effect of a European patent on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. Applicants / patent holders who do not have a permanent address or registered office in the Republic of Bulgaria must perform actions before the Patent Office through a local industrial property representative. When there are several applicants for an application for registration of a design and one of them is a Bulgarian natural or legal person, the authorization of a representative is not .
The application can be submitted in the following ways:
The following documents are attached to the application:
When submitting through the portal for electronic administrative services of the Patent Office, signing of the request with a qualified electronic signature is required simultaneously with the filing.
When submitting the request by fax, the sender should, within one month of sending the fax, submit the documents in original.
Upon receipt of the request, it is registered as received.
It is checked whether the Republic of Bulgaria is a designated party to the published application / issued European patent and, upon request in connection with issued European patents, whether the term under Article 72c of the APRUM has been met.
Then a check is made for completeness and regularity of the documents:
In the presence of all prerequisites, temporary protection is provided on the request / effect of the European patent on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria.
Where the application is filed by fax and the original is received by the Patent Office after one month, the date of filing the application shall be deemed to be the date of receipt of the original documents by the Office.
Where the application is submitted via the e-mail of the Patent Office, the examination shall not require the submission of an original for the purposes of initiating the examination proceedings.
When the term under Art. 72c of the LPRPM is not met and / or the Republic of Bulgaria is not a designated country of the applicant, it is stated that the application is inadmissible and publication in the Official Gazette of the Patent Office will not be made.
When there is no payment to the request, not all the necessary documents have been submitted or deficiencies are found in the submitted documents, the sender shall be notified thereof by giving him an appropriate term for their elimination. If the deficiencies are not remedied within this period, the request shall be deemed to be withdrawn and the proceedings shall be terminated.
Where all requirements are met but it is established, a request for legal effect of a granted European patent establishes that the identification data of the proprietor are not identical to those in the European patent, as of the date of publication of its issue и it was established that the changes occurred as a result of entry in the European Patent Register initiated before the European Patent Office after the date of publication of the grant of the patent, the sender is informed that the proceedings for securing action will continue immediately after it is submitted in translation into Bulgarian issued by the European Patent Office for registration and pay a fee under the Tariff.
Fees can be paid at the Patent Office or by bank transfer. The date of payment is considered to be:
Where payment is made by bank transfer, an original or a copy of a payment document shall be attached to the request, accompanied by an inventory in which must be precisely indicated the number of the application, respectively the patent, identification data of the applicant respectively the holder, the basis on the current tariff on which the payment is made, the respective amount, as well as identification data for the payer of fees.
Where it is established that, for a request for temporary protection, publication fees have not been paid or the fees paid are incomplete, a three-day period shall be granted for their removal from receipt of the notification.
When it is established that at the request of ensuring the legal effect of a granted European patent:
When all the requirements are met, the applicant shall be notified, and in case of a request for legal effect of a granted and published European patent, a decision shall be taken, the European patent shall be entered in the Register of European Patents maintained by the Patent Office and a certificate is prepared, which is handed over in the appropriate order.
Immediately after sending the notice / decision, preparation for publication is made and a notice of the received translation is published in the first possible edition of the Official Bulletin.
With regard to applications for enforcement of a European patent where required by the APRUM and publication of the translation of the description, patent claims and drawings, the corresponding preparation for publication and publication shall be made after the translation has been submitted in electronic format and form specified above up here. In this connection, if in the course of the proceedings for ensuring the legal effect of a European patent, the applicant finds that the translation of the description has not been submitted, the patent claims and the drawings in the required format and form this shall be indicated at the same time as the decision to grant the European patent to the applicant.
Fees for maintaining the effect of a European patent
Fees are due for maintaining the validity of a European patent on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria for each subsequent patent year after the last one paid to the European Patent Office in compliance with the requirements of the APRUM.
A fee for maintaining the effect of a European patent, which has become due in double amount within two months from the publication of the notice for issuance of the European patent, shall be paid to the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria in its regular amount, if payment is made within this period under the Art. 141 of the European Patent Convention.
The applicant for or holder of a European patent may at any time submit a corrected translation by paying an appropriate publication fee. The Patent Office shall publish a notice of the corrected translation received in the Official bulletin.
Where the corrections relate to the patent claims in the European patent application, access to the corrected translation shall be provided at the same time as the notice in the bulletin.
Where the corrections relate to the translation of the European patent, the patent shall be republished with the amendments introduced.
The corrected translation shall take effect for third parties from the date of publication of the notice.
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