In January 2021, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Patent Office stopped accepting new GCC applications and abolished the GCC patent system as we knew it. Amended GCC patent regulations were issued in 2022 that established a new role for the GCC Patent Office ('GCCPO'). In 2023, the GCCPO announced that it was going to restart operations and has since been handling the filing and prosecution of national patent applications on behalf of requesting GCC countries.
Bahrain and Kuwait were the first countries to begin referring the filing and examination of national patent applications to the GCCPO and more recently, Qatar became the third country to begin outsourcing national applications filed after 1 July 2023. There has been no announcement from the remaining GCC members, i.e. Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as to if or when filings through these national offices may be handled through the GCCPO. Read more