Published on: 10/07/2024 14:04 PM
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Guidelines published for Accelerated Patent Grant arrangement with the Dominican Republic
New worksharing arrangement allows for expedited grants of Dominican Republic patents to U.S. patent holders
The National Office of Industrial Property of the Dominican Republic (ONAPI) recently published guidelines detailing the process for how a U.S. patent holder can take advantage of a recently established Accelerated Patent Grant (APG) arrangement between the USPTO and ONAPI. The guidelines are part of a user’s guide for the APG arrangement that is available in Spanish on ONAPI’s website.
Under the APG process, an eligible patent applicant who has been granted a U.S. patent by the USPTO may request that ONAPI grant a patent on a corresponding Dominican Republic patent application at any time during its processing, without conducting a substantive examination, following the publication of the application by ONAPI and subject to the relevant patent laws of the Dominican Republic.
A joint statement of intent for the implementation of the APG arrangement was signed in April 2024 by Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, and Salvador Ramos, Director General of ONAPI.
“We are dedicated to supporting innovators and businesses both in the United States and the Dominican Republic,” said Director Vidal. “Through our growing number of worksharing agreements with Latin America and the Caribbean, we are making the process of obtaining a patent across international borders simpler, reducing barriers to global IP protection.”
The USPTO-ONAPI APG worksharing arrangement went into effect in April 2024 and will continue for five years.
Please visit the Patent worksharing page on the USPTO website for more information about USPTO worksharing programs.
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