Patent Procedure at Ethiopian IP Office and the payment of the search and examination fee

The Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) has changed the procedure regarding patent search and examination fee, based on Article 28 (2) of the Inventions, Minor Inventions & Industrial Design Regulation Number 12/1997.

According to this new procedure, implemented at the end of the last year, an applicant should pay search and substantive examination fee of USD 200 after filing an application. Although there is no specific period for attending this payment, the EIPO recommends that this should be done as soon as possible.

In the previous procedure, the search and substantive examination fee was required at the last stage or after the patent is granted.

Therefore, the implementation of this new procedure, which was already foreseen by Ethiopian Regulation but was not applied, will allow greater control of the patent registration phases and the costs minimization by the Institute.