Pages 290-297

INFORMATION FROM THE CONTRACTING / EXTENSION STATES

BG Bulgaria

Impact of the European Patent Convention on national law

On 1 July 2002, Bulgaria became contracting state to the EPC. Provisions implementing the EPC and bringing Bulgarian patent law into line with the EPC are contained in the Patent Law of the Republic of Bulgaria as amended and supplemented by Law No. 66/9.7.2002 in force as of 9.7.2002

A. National legal bases

1. Patent Law (PL), passed on 18.3.1993, in force as from 1.6.1993, supplemented by No. 83/1.10.1996, in force as from 1.11.1996, amended by No. 11/29.1.1998, amended and supplemented by No. 81/14.9.1999, in force as from 15.12.1999, amended by No. 45/30.4.2002, amended and supplemented by No. 66/9.7.2002 in force as from 9.7.2002, amended by No. 68/16.7.2002, supplemented by No. 17/21.2.2003 (see State Gazette No. 27/2.4.1993, amended by State Gazette No. 83/ 1.10.1996, No. 11/29.1.1998, No. 81/14.9.1999, No. 45/30.4.2002, No. 66/9.7.2002, No. 68/16.7.2002, No. 17/21.2.2003)

2. Regulations for Industrial Property Representatives, Government Decree No. 137/15.7.1993 (see State Gazette No. 65/30.7.1993, amended by State Gazette No. 86/21.10.1994 , No. 41/23.5.1997, No. 20/5.3.1999 and supplemented by No. 32/8.4.2003)

3. Tariff of fees Collected by the Patent Office (Decr.Fees), Government Decree No. 242/27.12.1999, effective as from 30.12.1999, amended and supplemented by No. 282/9.12.2002, in force as from 17.12.2002 (see State Gazette No. 114/30.12.1999, No 117/ 17.12.2002)

4. Regulation on Drafting, Filing and Examination of Applications for Patents of 20.9.1995 amended by Order of the President of the Patent Office No. 220/9.8.2002

B. Application of the EPC in Bulgaria

The main provisions relating to the application of the EPC in Bulgaria are summarised below:

The information is structured in the same way as in the EPO brochure "National law relating to the EPC".

I. Filing of European patent applications (Article 75 EPC, Article 72a(1) PL)

A European patent application, except a European divisional application, may be filed either with the EPO or with the Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria (BPO):

Patentno vedomstvo na Republica Bulgaria

Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria

52B, Dr G. M  Dimitrov Blvd.

BG - 1113 Sofia

BULGARIA

A European patent application may be filed with the BPO in any of the languages under Article 14(1) and (2) EPC. Filing of applications by facsimile is permitted.

Applicants having a permanent address or headquarters in the Republic of Bulgaria must file European patent applications with the BPO, unless the application enjoys the priority of an earlier application filed with the Office (Art. 72a(2) PL).

II. A. Rights conferred by a European patent application after publication (Articles 67 and 93 EPC, Articles 72b(3), 18 PL)

Under Article 72b(3) PL, a published European patent application designating the Republic of Bulgaria confers upon the applicant provisional protection under Article 18 PL - compensation reasonable in the circumstances - as from the date on which a mention of the receipt of the translation of the claims is published in the Official Bulletin. The Patent Office makes the translation available to the public.

II. B. Filing a translation of the claims (Article 67(3) EPC, Article 72b(2) PL)

The translation of the claims must be drawn up in Bulgarian, supplied in triplicate together with the bibliographic data of the application, and the publication fee be paid.

The applicant for a European patent may, at any time, supply a corrected translation (in triplicate), subject to the payment of the prescribed publication fee. The BPO publishes a mention of the corrected translation in the Official Bulletin and makes it available to the public at the same time as the mention in the Bulletin is published. The corrected translation shall have effect with respect to third parties as of the publication date of the mention. (Article 72d(3)(4) PL). Regarding the rights of a prior user where a translation is corrected, Article 72d(5) PL provides for the safeguards mentioned in Article 70(4)(b) EPC.

Documents meeting the formal requirements of Rule 35(3) to (14) EPC are accepted.

Applicants with no permanent address or main office in the Republic of Bulgaria must appoint a national professional representative as under Article 3(2) PL such persons are required to act in proceedings before the Patent Office through local industrial property representatives.

III. Filing translations of the patent specification (Article 65 EPC, Article 72c PL)

The European patent has effect in the Republic of Bulgaria only if the proprietor of the patent supplies the BPO with the Bulgarian translation of the text with which the EPO intends to grant the patent, or maintain it as amended, within three months of the date on which the mention of the grant, or the decision to maintain it as amended, is published in the European Patent Bulletin.

Upon filing the translation (comprising the title of the invention, the description, any drawings, and the patent claims) in triplicate together with data identifying the proprietor of the patent, the number of the European patent application, the publication number of the European patent, the number and date of the European Patent Bulletin in which the mention of the grant of the patent was published, the patentee shall also pay the fee for the publication of the translation. In the event of failure to observe these requirements, the European patent shall be deemed to be void ab initio in the Republic of Bulgaria.

Documents meeting the formal requirements of Rule 35(3) to (14) EPC are accepted.

Applicants with no permanent address or main office in the Republic of Bulgaria must appoint a national professional representative as under Article 3(2) PL such persons are required to act in proceedings before the Patent Office through local industrial property representatives.

IV. Authentic text of a European patent application or European patent (Article 70 EPC, Article 72d PL)

The translation is the authentic text of the European patent application or patent if the scope of protection is narrower than in the language of proceedings (Article 72d(1) PL); this does not apply, however, in revocation proceedings (Article 72d(2) PL).

The applicant for or proprietor of a European patent may, at any time, supply a corrected translation, subject to the payment of the prescribed publication fee. The Patent Office publishes a mention of the corrected translation in the Official Bulletin. Where the corrections concern the claims of a European patent application, the corrected translation is made available to the public at the same time as the mention in the Bulletin is published, and if the corrections relate to the translation of the European patent, the latter is published again with the corrections made therein. The corrected translation has effect with respect to third parties as of the publication date of the mention. Regarding the rights of a prior user where a translation is corrected, Article 72d(5) PL provides for the safeguards mentioned in Article 70(4)(b) EPC.

V. Payment of renewal fees for European patents (Article 141 EPC, Articles 33, 72e PL)

Renewal fees in respect of European patents requesting protection in the Republic of Bulgaria shall be paid to the BPO for each patent year following the year in which the European Patent Office publishes the mention of the grant of the European patent. Each patent year starts from the filing date of the patent application. The renewal fees for each subsequent patent year are due on the last day of the month in which the preceding patent year expires. Payment may not be effected for more than one patent year.

In case of failure to observe the time limit referred to above, renewal fees may still be paid within a period of grace of six months after the due date provided that twice the rate is paid (see Article 5^bis(1) Paris Convention). A patent that has lapsed due to non-payment of a renewal fee may be restored within a further six-month period following expiry of the mentioned six-months grace period after payment of the patent restoration fee (see Article 5^bis(2) Paris Convention).

Additionally, restitutio in integrum in the normal time limit for payment of renewal fees is possible on request within three months of the removal of the cause of non-compliance with the time limit, but no later than one year after expiry of the unobserved time limit.

The appointment of a national professional representative is not necessary for the payment of renewal fees but would be obligatory for proceedings in respect of restoration of the patent and in respect of restitutio in integrum.

Renewal fees are currently as follows (Gov. Decree No. 282/9.12.2002):

VI. Conversion of European patent applications into national patent applications (Articles 135 to 137 EPC, Article 72f PL)

The Bulgarian law provides for conversion into a national patent application in the case of deemed withdrawal pursuant to Article 77(5) or Article 90(3) of the EPC at the request of the applicant. Within three months following the date of receipt of the request at the BPO, the applicant must pay the fees for filing, examination, patent claims, priority claims and for publication of a mention of the application, and supply a Bulgarian translation of the European patent application as originally filed and, where appropriate, a translation of the application as amended during proceedings before the European Patent Office.

VII. Payment of fees (Articles 5, 33 PL, Decr. Fees)

All fees may be payable by bank transfer to the account of the BPO at Bulgarian National Bank (Centralno Upravlenie), account no. 3000170907, bank code  66196611, BIN 7302010001; the effective date of payment is the date of payment at the bank. Payments may also be made in cash at BPO, the effective date of payment being the date of receipt of payment at BPO.

VIII. Miscellaneous

1. Simultaneous protection (Article 139(3) EPC)

The Bulgarian patent law excludes the simultaneous protection according to Article 139(3) EPC (Article 72g PL).

2. Territorial field of application of the EPC (Article 168 EPC)

The EPC applies in the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria.

C. Amendment of Bulgarian patent law

1. Patentability (Articles 6 to 11 PL)

The patentability criteria (concept of invention, novelty, inventive step, industrial application) are fully consistent with those of the EPC (Articles 52 to 57 EPC).

2. Term of the patent (Article 16 PL)

A patent is granted for a term of 20 years, as from the date of filing the application.

3. Rights conferred by the patent

The rights conferred by the patent reflect the provisions of the Community Patent Convention (see Articles 25 ff. CPC 1989 ).

4. Extent of protection (Article 17 PL)

The extent of the protection is determined by the claims. The description and the drawings are used to interpret the claims. The claims cover not only the elements as expressed in the claims but also their equivalents, ie elements having in essence the same function realised in the same manner and giving essentially the same result, provided that it is quite obvious to persons skilled in the art that, by the priority date, the result obtained by the element, as expressed in the claims, could be obtained by the equivalent element. Due account is also taken of any statement limiting the scope of the claims made by the applicant or by the owner of the patent during grant or nullity proceedings respectively.

D. Other international treaties

Bulgaria is party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property since 13 June 1921 and bound by the Stockholm Act of this Convention since 1970.

The Patent Cooperation Treaty took effect in Bulgaria on 21 May 1984. Since 1 July 2002 it has been possible to obtain a European patent for Bulgaria by filing a Euro-PCT application.

The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purposes of Patent Procedure took effect in Bulgaria on 19 August 1980.

The TRIPS Agreement has been in force since 1 December 1996.

The 1991 Act of the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) has been in force since 24 April1998.

Bulgaria became party to the Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification on 27 November 2001.