ISRAEL Law and Practice Contributed by: Eran Bareket, Reinhold Cohn Group
slight cumulative discount (USD3,774 rather than USD4,529). It should be noted that all official fees are charged in Israeli new shekels (ILS). US dollar amounts appearing in this review are approxi- mate and calculated based on an exchange rate of ILS3.6 to USD1. Thus, adjustments may need to be made to reflect currency fluctuations. In addition, these fees are linked to the consumer price index and updated annually. There is no public information listing applica- ble patents in relation to certain products or processes (for example, in the pharmaceutical space). 1.6 Further Protection After Lapse of the Maximum Term As noted in 1.4 Term of Each Intellectual Prop- erty Right , it is possible, pursuant to Section 64D of the Patents Act, to receive a PTE for up to five years for applications dealing with medi- cines and medical devices. There is no PTE for agrochemical inventions. The PTE order must be granted before the basic patent lapses. 1.7 Third-Party Rights to Participate in Grant Proceedings Third parties may participate during grant proce- dures via the procedures set out below. Pre-Grant Opposition After the examination procedure has been con- cluded, the acceptance of the application is published in the Official Monthly Gazette (avail- able online). Any third party can oppose the pat- ent’s grant within three months from the date of publication.
The grounds for filing an opposition include: • there being a reason for which the Patent Registrar is authorised not to accept the application; • the application not meeting the requirement set forth in Section 4(2) (ie, novelty by public use, which the Patent Office is not required to examine); or • the opponent being the true owner of the invention rather than the applicant. The patentee may apply for an amendment dur- ing revocation proceedings only for the purpos- es of clarification, removing an error in the speci- fication, or restricting the claims. The Registrar will permit the amendment if they are convinced that the amendment will not broaden the scope of the claims and will not add anything to the specification not already included from the start. Post-Grant Revocation (Cancellation) Any person may file an application with the Pat- ent Office to revoke a granted patent, without needing to show locus standi. An application for revocation may be filed at any time and the statute of limitation does not apply. The grounds for filing a revocation application are identical to the grounds for filing a pre-grant opposi- tion. The Registrar may accept the application (and revoke the patent), deny the application or accept the application partially (eg, by deleting/ narrowing some of the claims). Third-Party Observations According to the statutory provisions of the Pat- ents Act, during the course of examination, any third party is entitled to submit copies of relevant prior art publications to the PTO. The examiner may use these during the examination as long as they were sent within two months from the due date for the applicant’s response to the request
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