The Paraguayan Patent Office (DINAPI) recently issued Resolutions RG 28/2015 and RG 01/2016 establishing a grace period until February 29, 2016, for the payment of pending substantive examination and annuity fees, respectively. After that date, DINAPI will declare ex-officio all patent applications not having paid said fees lapsed and/or abandoned.
Article 30 of the Paraguayan patent law establishes that failure to pay maintenance fees for a patent application or a patent will cause it to lapse.
However, before resolution RG 28/2015 there was not unified criteria on whether DINAPI should declare a patent application or a patent lapsed ex-officio or by request from a party.
Likewise, Article 25 of the Paraguayan patent law establishes that the substantive examination will be performed after the applicant pays the corresponding fees, which have to be paid within three years from the filing date. Otherwise the application will be deemed withdrawn.
However, before resolution 04/2015 of April 6, 2015, in practice the substantive examination fee did not have to be paid until the application was ready for the substantive examination, that is, after the application had been subjected to the preliminary examination and the publication.
Source: http://www.dinapi.gov.py
Previously published on the 25th January 2016
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