ISRAEL Law and Practice Contributed by: Eran Bareket, Reinhold Cohn Group
of that 18 months, the fact that the application is open for inspection is published again by the Registrar of Patents. Until 2012, patent applica- tions remained confidential until acceptance of the application (see below) by the Patent Office. International (Patent Co-operation Treaty, PCT) applications are also published under the same principles, but since these applications are usu- ally filed shortly before the 30-month deadline for filing the national phase expires, they become available to the general public shortly after filing. Third-party observations may also be submit- ted – see 1.7 Third-Party Rights to Participate in Grant Proceedings . After the examination is concluded and the application is accepted by the patent examiner, the acceptance of the application is published online. Opposition During a period of three months following that publication, third parties may lodge a pre-grant opposition to the grant of the patent. If no oppo- sition is filed during this period, the patent is granted, and a patent certificate will be issued. If an opposition is filed, the patent will be granted only after that opposition is dismissed and, if appealed, only after that appeal is dismissed. 1.3 Timeline for Grant Procedure Representation Representation is not mandatory, but highly rec- ommended. Duration The length of the grant procedure varies sig- nificantly between different technological fields. The length has also changed over time (in recent years examination has been shortened in dura-
tion due to an increase in the number of patent examiners). According to the ILPTO 2023 annual report, the average prosecution period has shortened in the last few years and the Patent Office divisions reached the target prosecution times set in the 2023 service charter in all its divisions except for biotechnology, where an abnormally large num- ber of divisional applications were filed. The tar- get prosecution times vary between the different divisions and are usually between 36-40 months. The 2023 annual report shows the length of time recent prosecutions lasted (in months) from the filing date until the end of examination, while previous annual reports presented the average prosecution times from the filing date until first examination. Average prosecution times include divisional and PPH applications, whose prose- cution times can be substantially shorter than the average. • 2023: mechanics electronics and physics (37.8), computers communications and medi- cal devices (37.9), chemistry and pharma (38.5), biotechnology (45.9) and average (38.5). • 2022: mechanics electronics and physics (37.2), computers communications and medi- cal devices (39.9), chemistry and pharma (38.6), biotechnology (44.4) and average (39.5). • 2021: mechanics electronics and physics (38.3), computers communications and medi- cal devices (41.1), chemistry and pharma (40.6), biotechnology (48) and average (41.3). • 2020: mechanics electronics and physics (38.9), computers communications and medi- cal devices (43.8), chemistry and pharma (43.7), biotechnology (48.5) and average (42.9).
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