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In Colombia, to file your national phase entry of an international PCT patent application, you count 31 months starting from the earliest patent priority you claimed. Only Costa Rica also accepts a 31 months term, the main rule in Latin American is 30 months in those countries part of the PCT agreement.

In case you have missed this deadline, in Colombia, it is not possible to reestablish the application, unless you can prove unforeseen circumstances for missing the original timeline and make an additional fee. In the Colombian case, the reinstatement of rights of the applicant, regulated by rule 49.6 of the PCT agreement, does apply with some modifications and strict restrictions.

If you have a specific concern, please contact us.

Yes, at the moment of filing the title, the application, the abstract, the full description, and claims have to be in Spanish.

The Colombian Patent Office requires that the national entry form corresponds precisely to the international application. This requirement can be a problem when the international patent has a large number of claims. In Colombia, you will have to pay for all the claims, even if later you modify them and make them shorter.

As with all patent applications, the best option is to get a human translation made by a patent expert in that particular technical field. Translations can be the most expensive part of the application, but an inadequate translation can become a real problem in the future.

We are experts in patent translations into Spanish and will be glad to help you with this.

As in most countries, patents are valid in Colombia for a 20 years term starting from the application date.

In the case of utility models, Colombia gives protection for ten years.

Once the validity time is over, there is no possibility to renew the patent rights.

1. Name and address of the applicant.
2. Name, address, and citizenship of the inventor(s).
3. Invention title, abstract of the Invention, utility model or design.
4. Invention, utility model or design text description.
5. Claims as filed in the international application.
6. Priority claims (if any).
7. Set of formal drawings.
8. Translation of the foreign patent application into Spanish, as previously stated.
9. Official filing fee.
10. Power of Attorney. In our case, the POA should only be signed, and that is it, no other formality is required. 11. Assignment of rights from the inventor to the applicant if different.

In Colombia. it takes two to five years to get a patent. Compared to other offices in Latin America, the Colombian patent office offers a faster average time for granting a patent.

Patents applications are published in less than a month after filing. If everything is in order, the patent is published. For 60 days ,third parties can file an opposition.

Six months after the publication, it is compulsory to pay and request an examination. From then, you have to wait for an official notice. Most of the time, the examiner will issue one to three office actions before granting the patent.

Annuities are regular payments you have to make to the Colombian patent office to keep the patent alive.

You do not need to pay annuities before the patent is granted, as they are included in the application fee.

Once the office grants the patent, every year, you will have to pay the maintenance fee no later than the end of the month when the application was filed.

Example: your application was filed on January 2020 and it was granted in March 2023: your first annuity has to be paid in January 2024 and there for every year in January.

In case you miss the deadline, the Colombian patent office gives you an extra six months grace period to pay the annuity with an additional fee.

If you do not make the corresponding payment, your patent rights will expire.

If you are looking for a database of patent applications in Colombia, the best place to start is at the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce – SIC. The patent office has an online database in Spanish that can be very useful if you know what you are looking for.

Follow the next steps to find the database: in the first place, look for the link “Propiedad industrial” click in “Patente de invención,”,and in the portal, you’ll see “Buscadores” and then “Base de Datos Nacional.”

• Colombia is an emerging economy in Latin America and a main destination for patents in the region.
• In Colombia, you have to pay national fees for all the claims that appear in the international application.
• The Colombian Patent Office is called the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce – SIC.
• Colombia is part of the Hague Apostille Convention
• Colombia is a contracting state of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
• Colombia is a contracting state of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.