Latvian Patent Law
The new Patent Law of the Republic of Latvia has entered into force as of March 01, 2007.
First to be mentioned that as previously, there remains to be no substantive examination of patentability of the invention in Latvia. The patent protection term is 20 years starting with filing date of the application. This term may be extended, but no more than for 5 years (by virtue of SPC).
The new Patent law includes the relevant provisions of the Directive 98/44/EC as regards biotechnological inventions, as well as contains a Bolar exemption (experimental use exemption) as been provided in the Directive 2004/27/EC.
Moreover, in light of the Decision G0001/04 of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO in additional to therapeutic and surgical treatment methods, diagnostic methods in case they are performed on human or animal body are also expressly included in the list of non-patentable inventions.
Important introduction by the new Patent Law is that the National route of PCT is closed. Therefore, the designation of Latvia for international patent applications filed on or after March 01, 2007, shall be regarded as request to obtain a European patent.
Being a signatory of the London Agreement, Latvia requires only claims and the textual matter on the drawings to be translated in order to validate European patent in Latvia. That is expressly stated in the new law.
The procedure for payment of the publication fee is also amended, by providing said fee to be covered together with the filing fee, thus within one month after filing of the application. In accordance with further Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, publication fee has been abolished, though the filing fee increased exactly by the publication fee.
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