How to apply for Patent in Kenya

In order to obtain a patent in Kenya, the applicant is required to submit an application form in KIPI. The form can be downloaded from KIPI’s website www. kipi.,go.ke. Let us learn How to apply for Patent in Kenya

Procedure

Apply in Person

1. Visit the Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) offices and request for assistance on the intellectual property rights/ patenting
2. Here you will be issued with a Request for a Grant of a Patent form IP3 to fill and submit to the Managing Director, KIPI. The form can also be downloaded from KIPI’s Website
3. Complete the request from and submit it together with the invention and necessary documentation to the KIPI offices for scrutiny. A checklist of the documents to be submitted is mentioned in the “Required Documents” of this page.
4. If you are not the creator then you must have a letter authorizing you to register the patent.
5. The application is then published in the KIPI journal as soon as possible, after the expiration of 18 months of the filling date.
6. This is followed by payment of statutory prescribed fees as advised by the KIPI officials. Pay the fees as advised and preserve the receipt for future references.
7. If the application meets the requirements, you are then required to request a date for its examination in within three years.
8. If the application is not rejected the applicant is issued with a certificate grant of a patent.

Required Documents

1. Identification documents
2. a request application form Form IP 3
3. Specification document
4. Title of invention
5. Background information
6. A description of the invention ;( The description should disclose the invention and at least one mode for carrying out the invention in such full, clear, concise and exact terms as to enable any person having ordinary skills in the art to make use and to evaluate the invention)
7. One or more claims to the invention; (The claim or claims should define the matter for which protection is sought and should be clear and concise and fully supported by the description. In defining the matter for which protection is sought, a claim should set out)
8. one or more drawings (where necessary); and
9. An abstract detailing the invention (The abstract should merely serve the purpose of technical information; in particular, it should not be taken into account for the purpose of interpreting the scope of the protection sought.)

Office Locations & Contacts

Kenya Industrial Property Institute Centre,
Kabarsiran Avenue, Off Waiyaki Way, Lavington
P.O. Box 51648-00200, Nairobi.
Tel: 020-6002210/11, 6006326/29/36, 2386220
Mobile: Safaricom: 0743463407; 0743463408 ; 0702002020; Airtel: 0732487412 & 0734515312; 0736002020
E-mail: info@kipi.go.ke
Facebook: @kipikenya, Twitter: @kipikenya
Website: KIPI Website

Eligibility

• Inventors who have made Inventions in any field of Technology are eligible to get a patent. In general any device, substance, method or process can be patented.
• Examples: Any new or improved product or process in the following main sections of technology:

(i) Human Necessities: Agriculture, foodstuff, to personal or domestic articles, health and amusement.(ii) Performing operations and transporting: separating, mixing, shaping, printing and transporting.(iii) Chemistry and metallurgy.(iv) Textiles and paper. Fixed Construction: Building, earth moving mining.(v) Mechanical engineering, lighting, heating, weapons, blasting including engines, pumps and engineering in general(vi) Physics: Instruments and nucleonic.(vii) Electricity

• There are exceptions. The following are not regarded as inventions and are excluded from patent protection: –

1. Discoveries or findings that are products or processes of nature where mankind has not participated in their creation (including, plants and microorganisms).
2. Scientific and mathematical methods and theories.
3. Schemes e.g. investment, methods of bookkeeping or insurance schemes.
4. Business methods e.g. credit or stock methods
5. Rules for playing games (The games equipment may be patentable).
6. Methods for treatment of human or animal body by surgery or therapy, as well as diagnostic methods; except products, in particular substances or compositions or apparatus for use in, any of those methods or;
7. Public Health related methods of use or uses of any molecule or other substances whatsoever used for the prevention or treatment of any disease which the Minister responsible for matters relating to health may designate as a serious health hazard or as a life threatening disease.
8. Mere presentation of information.
9. Non Functional details of shape, configuration, pattern or ornamentation

Fees – apply for Patent in Kenya

• The fees can be obtained through the following link Fees Details

Validity – apply for Patent in Kenya

• 20 years.
• After that the patent is renewed every year.

Documents to Use

• Form IP 3
• Patent Forms

Processing Time

• After 18 months from the earliest priority date.

Instructions

• Patent protection is not automatic. One is required to file an application with a patent office, which will assess whether or not the invention is patentable.
• It is therefore important that an invention must not be disclosed to the public before a patent is filed.
• In order to obtain a patent in Kenya, the applicant is required to submit an application form in KIPI.
• The form can be downloaded from KIPI’s website www.kipi.go.ke .
• The application form should be accompanied by a full description of the invention, which must illustrate the characteristics of the invention and state the scope of patent rights sought.
• If one intends to sell their products in overseas markets, it may be important to consider whether to obtain patents overseas and in which countries.
• The decision will be based on the market potential in each country.

Required Information

1. Applicant’s or agent’s reference
2. Title of invention
3. Applicant Personal details and contact details
4. Inventors personal details and contact details
5. Date of priority
6. Request Declaration claiming priority
7. Description
8. Claim(s) (Statement justifying right to patent/utility model certificate)
9. Abstract

Need for the Document

• A patent gives the owner the exclusive rights to prevent others from manufacturing, using or selling the protected invention in a given country.
• A patent is a legally enforceable right granted by the government in return for disclosure of the invention to the public.
• Patent protection is territorial meaning every country grants patents that are only applicable and enforceable in that country. In other words, patents rights can only be enforced in a country where the patent is granted and in force.

Information which might help

• Kenya Industrial Property Institute (KIPI) is responsible for examining and granting patents in Kenya. KIPI operates under the Industrial Property Act 2001.
• However, it is also possible to obtain a patent through the African regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), which is a regional intergovernmental organization, based in Harare Zimbabwe and which is mandated to grant patents on behalf of its member states.
• Currently ARIPO has a membership of 16 countries in Africa.
• Invention means a solution to a specific problem in the field of technology. It is; a new and useful art (whether producing a physical effect or not), process, machine, manufacture or composition of matter which is not obvious, or any new and useful improvement thereof which is not obvious, capable of being used or applied in trade or industry and includes an alleged invention. An invention may be, or may relate to, a product, or a process.

What can be patented?

• In general, any device, substance, method or process can be patented. For a patent to be granted, the invention must satisfy three requirements, that is the invention must

(i) be new, which means that the invention has not been publicly disclosed anywhere in the world;(ii) Involve an inventive step, that is the invention must not be obvious to someone with knowledge and experience in the technological field of the invention; and(iii) be industrially applicable, in that the invention must be capable of being used in industry

• There are certain things that are excluded from for patent protection. These include methods and schemes of doing business, scientific and mathematical formulas, and method of treatment of animals and humans and artistic creations.

External Links

• Patenting in Kenya
• Guide to Patenting in Kenya

Others – apply for Patent in Kenya

Problems when applying for a patent

• Many patent applications are not successful for one or more of the following reasons:

1. The patent application does not describe the invention properly;
2. The invention is not new because the applicant disclosed it to the public before applying for a patent.
3. The invention is not new when compared with things that are already known. For example a similar invention may have been published in an earlier patent document; or
4. The application is for something that is not patentable such as a principle, idea or concept rather than its practical adaptation.

• Many applicants also abandon their patent applications because they are not sure that the invention will be commercially successful, or they are not prepared to pay the cost necessary to obtain a patent; or they do not have sufficient knowledge of the patent system to respond to problems that may arise, for example in the examination phase. apply for Patent in Kenya