Patent

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Summary:

A patent can be filed to protect a technical invention. For an invention to be patentable, certain substantive and formal requirements must be met.

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A patent is a legal title that grants the inventor and/or applicant exclusive rights to a technical invention (a product or process).

This patent is valid:

  • for a maximum period of 20 years from the date of filing;
  • in the countries where such protection has been requested.

Full disclosure of the invention (written description, drawings) is mandatory for this exclusive right to be granted.

Who is concerned

The right to a patent belongs to the inventor or their successor in title (any person who has acquired the right from the inventor).

Any natural or legal person may apply for a patent. If your invention is made within the scope 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, your invention must meet the following criteria:

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

Non-eligible inventions

You cannot receive a patent for:

  • discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
  • purely aesthetic creations;
  • plans, principles and methods applicable to intellectual activities (games or economic activities) as well as computer programs;
  • presentations of information;
  • methods of medical treatment for humans or animals (however, medicines and medical devices may be patented);
  • discovery of 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; and
  • provide claims: patent claims describe the subject matter that falls under the exclusive right granted by the patent.
    This subject matter can be:
    • a product;
    • a process;
    • a device;
    • a usage; and
  • pay the procedural fees relating to the grant of the patent.

Preliminary steps

The Office for Intellectual Property (Office de la propriété intellectuelle - OPI) of the Ministry of the Economy offers online services that allow you to file the following documents electronically:

  • patent applications;
  • applications for supplementary protection certificates - SPCs (certificats complémentaires de protection - CCP);
  • documents relating to an existing application.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has developed the 'eFiling' system, which is already in use or in the process of being adopted in 18 member states of the European Patent Convention (EPC), including the Benelux member states.

This online platform is coupled with a simple and highly secure two-factor authentication (2FA) system, which allows you to authenticate yourself anywhere.
All these steps are also described on the OPI's 'Patents' portal.

Costs

In order for a patent to be issued to you, you must pay certain fees:

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

To obtain a Luxembourg patent more quickly (before the usual 18 months), you must submit a request for early publication, which costs EUR 49.

Once the patent has been granted, you must pay annual fees in order for it to remain valid:

Annual fees
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 the annual fee in advance for the coming patent year. Payment is due on the last day of the anniversary month in which the patent was filed.

For example: if you filed your patent on 20 March 2022, you must pay the annual fee in advance for the third year on 31 March 2024.

A surcharge of EUR 20 will be applied if you make a late payment (6 months after the normal payment deadline) of an annual fee.

You must pay the fees by bank transfer payable to:

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 (Luxembourg patents) or publication number (European patents and international patent applications - Patent Cooperation Treaty, PCT);
  • the name of the patent owner;
  • the date on which the patent was filed;
  • 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 (OPI) of the Ministry of the Economy:

A Luxembourgish patent protects the invention only in Luxembourg.

To obtain protection in other countries, you must file:

  • national patents in those countries; or
  • a European patent application; or
  • an international patent application (Patent Cooperation Treaty or PCT).

You have a 12-month right of priority from the date of filing the national patent to file subsequent applications.

Filing a European patent application

Standard European patent

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 countries selected.

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

  • Online Filing 2.0; or
  • filing by post or in person.

European unitary patent

The unitary patent, which came into force on 1 June 2023, allows to obtain uniform protection for an invention in 18 Member States of the European Union (EU), including Luxembourg, by means of a single application.

The 18 countries currently participating in the unitary patent system are:

  • Germany;
  • Austria;
  • Belgium;
  • Bulgaria;
  • Denmark;
  • Estonia;
  • Finland;
  • France;
  • Italy;
  • Latvia;
  • Lithuania;
  • Luxembourg ;
  • Malta;
  • the Netherlands;
  • Portugal;
  • Romania;
  • Slovenia;
  • Sweden.

The unitary patent is a major European advance which allows:

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

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

How to obtain a unitary patent

The new European unitary patent is based on a European patent granted by the EPO.

You must therefore first 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 18 countries participating in the system.

Please note: in order to apply for unitary effect, you have one month from the date of publication of the granting of the European patent in the European Patent Bulletin.

International patent application

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 may result in the granting of a national or regional patent in the countries that are signatories to the treaty, depending on your choice.

Supporting documents

A Luxembourg patent application must contain the following information:

  • 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 your patent application, you must provide at least a description and claims.

If your application is incomplete or contains errors, you will be asked to correct it within the time limit set by the OPI.

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 OPI will:

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

In the case of a standard application, the Minister issues the title constituting the patent 18 months after the application. It takes the form of an order that will be entered in the register and published in the Official Journal (Memorial B).

In Luxembourg, patents are granted:

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

Modification of the patent application

You have a right to modification 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.

It must be noted that the patent application cannot be amended in such a way that its subject matter extends beyond the content of the application that was initially filed.

Waiving the patent

You may, at any time, with immediate effect, waive the patent or one or more of the claims expressed therein by entering a declaration to that effect in the register.

Withdrawing the patent application

You can withdraw your patent application until it is granted.

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

Marketing the invention

After obtaining the patent, if you do not commercialise the invention in order to adequately supply the market, you may, under certain conditions, be forced to grant licences to third parties.

Good to know

Data on all patents in force in Luxembourg can be consulted in the official register of the Benelux Patent Platform (eRegister).

The European Patent Office's espacenet database contains patent 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

Other language(s)

Request for grant of a patent

Last update 18.10.2023

WORD102 Kb

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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

Pdf

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Who to contact

Ministry of the Economy Office for Intellectual Property - Ministry of the Economy

Address:
19-21, boulevard Royal L-2449 Luxembourg
L-2914
Phone:
(+352) 247-84113
Fax:
(+352) 247-94113
Email address:
dpi@eco.etat.lu
Website:
https://meco.gouvernement.lu/en/domaines-activites/propriete-intellectuelle.html

European Patent Office

Address:
Bob-van-Benthem-Platz 1 D-80469 Munich Germany
Phone:
+49 (0)89 23 99 0
Website:
https://www.epo.org/index.html

World Intellectual Property Organization

Address:
34, chemin des Colombettes CH-1211 Geneva Switzerland
Phone:
(+41) 22 33 89 111
Website:
http://www.wipo.int/portal/en/index.html

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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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