Business brief 2018: Sri Lanka

Patents

How are patent rights registered or secured in Sri Lanka?

Patent rights are secured in Sri Lanka through registration. In order to obtain registration for a patent, an application should be filed at the National Intellectual Property Office (NIPO) in the prescribed form.

Sri Lanka is a contracting party to Paris Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Therefore, it is possible to file a Convention patent application as well as a PCT national phase application in Sri Lanka.

A Convention application should be filed within 12 months from the date of the earliest priority application.

The time frame for filing a PCT national phase application in Sri Lanka is 30 months from the date of earliest priority.

The period of protection of a patent right is 20 years from the date of filing the application.

What are the costs of obtaining and defending a patent?

Registration of a patent costs approximately $550. Defending a patent (infringement action) costs approximately $6,000 to 7,000.

Is there anything unusual about Sri Lanka’s patent law that companies should be aware of, and what are the most common mistakes businesses make?

Sri Lanka’s IP system does not provide patent protection for new plant varieties despite being a signatory to the TRIPS Agreement.

There is currently no second-tier patent protection system in Sri Lanka.

The common mistakes businesses make include: