Patent Caselaw | Colombia | Utility Model Minimum Filing Requirements
On February 11, 2020, Colombia’s patent and trademark office (SIC, for its Spanish acronym), deemed an application as “not filed” and did not admit it for processing, for not meeting minimum filing requirements under Decision 486, which prescribed the Common Industrial Property Regime applicable in Andean Community member countries, i.e. Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
SIC works under a flexible system
SIC will accept a patent application at first, yet will review it yet within 6 days and will issue an office action where minimum requirements have not been met, providing the applicant with a period of 2 months for the purpose of meeting such requirements.
SIC found that the UM application originally filed on November 23, 2019 under No. NC2019/0013072 did not meet minimum filing requirements prescribed in article 33 Decision 486 and issued the corresponding office action, requiring the applicant to submit both a description disclosing sufficiently and clear, and the corresponding drawings needed to further understand the invention, within 2 months.
Failing to meet the minimum requirements in due time, the applicant requested an additional 2-month extension which SIC rejected, since SIC ruled do not prescribe the possibility of such extensions. In doing so, SIC further clarified the minimum filing requirements for a patent application to be accepted for processing, under article 33 Decision 486, specifically:
The indication that a patent grant is being sought;
The full identification of the applicant, so that contact by SIC is possible;
A description of the invention;
The corresponding drawings, where necessary; and
Evidence of having paid the corresponding official filing.
There are additional formal requirements for patent applications, including the corresponding claims, abstracts, power of attorneys, as well as specific for the corresponding description and drawings, However, these are the minimum requirements an application must meet in order to be admitted for process, and be assigned a filing date, by SIC.
Click here to request a copy of SIC’s decision or in case you wish any additional information.
