Patents

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Summary:

A technical invention can be the subject of a patent application. To do so, the invention must be patentable, subject to certain conditions as to form and content.

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A patent is a legal title that grants the inventor and/or patent applicant an exclusive right over a technical invention – a product or process – for a maximum of 20 years from the filing date, in the countries in which protection is requested.

This exclusive right is granted in return for the complete disclosure of the invention (written description, drawings).

Who is concerned

The patent right belongs to the inventor or their beneficiary.

Any natural person or legal entity may apply for a patent. If you are an employee and your invention is made in the context of your employment contract, the patent belongs to your employer. However, as the inventor, you have certain rights in relation to the patent granted.

Prerequisites

Fundamental conditions

To be patentable, the invention must satisfy certain criteria. The invention must:

  • be new;
  • involve an inventive step;
  • be likely to have an industrial application.

A patent may not be obtained for:

  • discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
  • purely aesthetic creations;
  • plans, principles and methods applicable to intellectual activities, games, economic activities and computer programs;
  • presentations of information;
  • methods of medical treatment for humans or animals (however, medicines and medical devices may be patented);
  • animal or plant varieties as well as essentially biological procedures used to obtain plants or animals, with the exception of microbiological procedures and products obtained via these procedures;
  • inventions whose commercial exploitation would run counter to public order or accepted principles of morality.

Formal requirements

When you file your patent application, you must:

  • provide a written description of the invention, if necessary accompanied by drawings: these documents must disclose the invention clearly and completely enough to enable a skilled professional to produce it;
  • provide claims: patent claims describe the subject matter that falls under the exclusive right granted by the patent. This subject matter may be a product, process, device or use;
  • pay the procedural fees that are due at the different stages of the patent grant process.

Preliminary steps

The Office for Intellectual Property at the Ministry of the Economy (Office de la propriété intellectuelle du Ministère de l’Économie) offers online services for electronically preparing and filing patent applications, and electronically preparing and sending other documents related to patents.

The online services offered use a software suite developed by the European Patent Office (EPO) known as 'electronic Online Filing' (eOLF). To ensure that all the information they submit online is secure, applicants must use smart cards issued by the EPO.

The following online filing services are available:

  • filing of Luxembourgish patent applications;
  • filing of documents produced after a Luxembourgish patent application is filed or after the Luxembourgish patent is granted.

Applicants must request the smart card from the European Patent Office.

You must activate the card before use. As a next step, you must then inform the Office for Intellectual Property (by email to BPP-Helpdesk@eco.etat.lu), after which the definitive registration can be made (please note: the last link only works with a correctly connected and functioning smart card).

All of these steps are also described in Office for Intellectual Property's 'Patents' portal.

Costs

The procedure for granting a patent entails the payment of certain fees:

  • filing fee (national patent): EUR 40: this fee must be paid within one month of filing;
  • search fee: EUR 450 (only if the preparation of a search report is requested).

To expedite the granting of a Luxembourgish patent (in less than the 18 months it usually takes), a petition for early publication must be filed. The cost for this service is EUR 49.

Once the patent has been granted, as the owner you must keep it active and current by paying annual maintenance fees as described below:

Annual fees for maintaining a patent
3rd year: EUR 33
 12th year: EUR 165
4th year: EUR 41 13th year: EUR 180
5th year: EUR 52 14th year: EUR 198
6th year: EUR 66 15th year: EUR 213
7th year: EUR 82 16th year: EUR 230
8th year: EUR 99 17th year: EUR 246
9th year: EUR 115 18th year: EUR 262
10th year: EUR 131 19th year: EUR 281
11th year: EUR 148 20th year: EUR 300

You must pay in advance for the upcoming patent year. Payment is due on the last day of the anniversary month in which the patent was filed.

In case of late payment of an annual fee, a EUR 20 surcharge will be applied during the 6-month grace period starting from the regular payment deadline.

The fees are to be paid by bank transfer:

  • Beneficiary: Office de la propriété intellectuelle (OPI) du Ministère de l’Économie
  • IBAN: LU91 1111 7125 0540 0000
  • BIC: CCPLLULL

The transfer reference must specify:

  • the filing number (for Luxembourgish patents) or publication number (for European and international patents); and
  • the name of the patent owner; and
  • the date on which the patent was filed; and
  • the nature of the fee (when paying an annual maintenance fee, specify the year of the patent concerned).

How to proceed

Filing an application for a national patent

You can apply for a national patent in Luxembourg at the Office for Intellectual Property at the Ministry of the Economy:

A Luxembourgish patent protects the invention only in Luxembourg.

To obtain protection in other countries, you must file:

  • national patent applications in those countries;
  • or a European patent application or international patent application (PCT).

For this purpose, you have a 12-month right of priority commencing on the date on which the national patent was filed.

Filing a European patent application

You can apply to the European Patent Office (EPO) for a European patent covering up to 40 countries on the European continent (depending on your choice).

Once granted, the European patent has the same legal status as that of a national patent in the designated countries.

An application for a European patent may also be filed online at www.epoline.org. Three options are available:

  • Online Filing (eOLF);
  • Online Filing 2.0;
  • filing through a web form.

Unitary patent

The unitary patent, which came into force on 1 June 2023, allows to obtain uniform protection for an invention in 17 Member States of the European Union (EU), including Luxembourg, by means of a single application. Ultimately, this protection will be available for 25 EU countries.

The 17 countries that are taking part in this enhanced cooperation and have ratified the agreements are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.

The unitary patent is a major European advance which allows:

  • to increase the legal certainty associated with the protection title obtained; and
  • to reduce the costs of obtaining and maintaining the patent; and
  • to simplify administrative procedures.

The European unitary patent does not replace national patents and the traditional European patent. It provides an additional option for companies and inventors wishing to obtain patent protection within the EU.

How to obtain a unitary patent

The new European patent with unitary effect is based on the European patent granted by the European Patent Office (EPO).

You must therefore file your European patent application with the EPO.

Once the European patent has been granted, you can apply for unitary effect and obtain a unitary patent in the 17 countries participating in the system.

Please note: this application must be submitted within one month of the publication date on which the issue of the European patent is mentioned in the European Patent Bulletin.

In the other EPO member states, you can obtain patent protection through the traditional procedures for validating the European patent at national level.

International patents

Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), to which more than 150 countries are party, you may file an international patent application with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

This procedure, which is initially centralised, may lead to a patent being granted in the countries that are signatories to the treaty, at your discretion.

Supporting documents

The application for a Luxembourgish patent must contain:

  • a request that a patent be granted;
  • a description of the invention;
  • one or more claims identifying the subject matter of the requested protection;
  • the drawings to which the description or claims refer, when such drawings are required to understand the invention;
  • an abstract;
  • the identity of the inventor(s);
  • where applicable, a statement specifying that the inventor objects to the publication of their name;
  • where applicable, a declaration of priority relating to a previous patent application for the same invention.

To obtain a filing date for their patent application, you must provide at least a description and claims.

If the application is incomplete or has any errors, you will be asked to rectify it within a time limit that varies depending on the error(s) found.

Duration of validity

Patents are valid for up to 20 years from the filing date, subject to the payment of the annual fees. However, patents for which no search report was established are valid for up to a maximum of 6 years.

The administration's response

If the application is complete and satisfies the aforementioned conditions, the department will:

  • register the filing; and
  • issue a confirmation of receipt.

The title constituting the patent will be granted by the Minister 18 months later in the form of a decree that will be recorded in the register and published in the Mémorial, Recueil administratif et économique (Official Journal, Administrative and Economic Volume).

In Luxembourg, patents are granted:

  • without prior examination of the patentability of inventions;
  • without a guarantee of the accuracy of the description.

Amendment of the patent / Surrender of the patent

As the owner of the patent, you have a right of amendment before grant which:

  • allows you to amend the claims, description and drawings in the patent application;
  • you must exercise no later than 4 months after the search report is sent.

Please note that a request to amend a patent does not allow the patent holder to expand on the content that was initially filed.

You can surrender the patent or one or more of the claims in it at any time.

Withdrawing the application

You can withdraw your application at any time before the patent is granted.

If the patent application is withdrawn before it is published, the application file will not be made public.

Once the patent has been granted, you may abandon it by not paying the annual fee. You may also withdraw the patent, with immediate effect, by having a statement to this effect recorded in the register.

Obligations

As part of the procedure to grant the patent, you are required to fully disclose the invention in the technical documents. These documents will be made public by no later than the grant date.

If you are the owner of a patent but do not market your invention sufficiently to supply the market, you may, under certain conditions, be forced to grant licences to third parties.

Good to know

The official register containing all current patents in Luxembourg may be viewed in the register of the 'Benelux Patent Platform (eRegister)'.

The European Patent Office's esp@cenet database contains applications published in over 90 countries and regions and can be searched by anyone seeking information on the state of the art in a given field. Applicants are advised to conduct such a search before beginning the patent application process.

Online services and forms

National patent

National patent - Online filing

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Request for grant of a patent

Last update 18.10.2023

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European patent

European patent - Online filing

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International patents

International patent - online request

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Note: view tips for using PDF forms.

International patent - request

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Who to contact

Office for Intellectual Property - Ministry of the Economy

European Patent Office

World Intellectual Property Organization

Patent offices established in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

2 of 10 bodies shown

Related procedures and links

Links

Further information

Publications

Legal references

  • Loi modifiée du 20 juillet 1992

    portant modification du régime des brevets d'invention

  • Règlement grand-ducal modifié du 17 novembre 1997

    portant fixation des taxes et rémunérations à percevoir en matière de brevets d’invention, en exécution de la loi du 20 juillet 1992 portant modification du régime des brevets d’invention ; en matière de certificats complémentaires de protection pour médicaments, conformément au règlement CEE n°1768/92 du Conseil du 18 juin 1992

  • Règlement grand-ducal du 25 mars 2022

    portant modification du règlement grand-ducal modifié du 17 novembre 1997 portant fixation des taxes et rémunérations à percevoir en matière de brevets d’invention et de certificats complémentaires de protection

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