Patents:

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A patent is a title that confers upon the inventor and/or the applicant, the right to prevent other people from exploiting the invention claimed in the patent. In return for the disclosure of the invention, the State grants the inventor an operating monopoly for a maximum duration of 20 years.

To obtain a patent, the invention must fall within the patentable domain and meet certain criteria for patentability.

  • the invention must be new;
  • the invention must involve an inventive activity;
  • the invention must be capable of being made or used in industry.

A patent may not be obtained for:

  • discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
  • aesthetic creations;
  • plans, principles and methods for intellectual activities, games or in the field of economic activity as well as computer programmes;
  • the presentation of information;
  • medical treatment methods for humans or animals (in contrast to medical products);
  • animal or plant varieties as well as essentially biological procedures used to obtain plants or animals, with the exclusion of microbiological procedures and products obtained via these procedures.

How to obtain protection

A Luxembourg patent application can be submitted to the Ministry of the Economy's Office for Intellectual Property.

An inventor who files a patent application in Luxembourg may also file an application in other countries by benefiting from the right of priority for 12 months from the date on which the national patent application was filed.

A European patent covering up to 40 countries on the European continent, according to the applicant's choice, may be filed with the European Patent Office. The European patent issued shall have the same legal value as a national patent within the States designated.

The European Unitary Patent, which is based on the European patent currently provides uniform protection in 18 EU Member States.

ThePatent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is a world-wide agreement with the objective of making it simpler to obtain a patent in a large number of States (over 150). By making a single international application, the applicant can request a patent in all of the countries that have signed the treaty.

The inventor may need to call upon specialists in different subject areas:

  • The Office for Intellectual Property provides basic information on the patent system and maintains a register of patent attorneys that are authorised to work in Luxembourg as professional representatives regarding patents.
  • Among its other missions, the Intellectual Property Institute Luxembourg (IPIL) conducts documentary research prior to an application and keeps a continuous technology watch on patents that are technically close to the invention, thus enabling the inventor to steer their strategy with full knowledge of the situation.

Practical arrangements

The applicant will be able to consult the Luxembourg section of the Benelux Patent Platform portal, which details the formalities that must be completed in order to obtain a patent that covers the Luxembourg territory.

Patent database

Since patent holders are bound to disclose the information on their inventions publicly, these publications enrich the technical knowledge base and are easily and freely accessible in the patents' literature:

  • the espacenet database can be used to search for information among patent applications published in over 100 countries and regions;
  • The Benelux Patent Platform's public register makes it possible to consult bibliographical data on Luxembourg patents as well as, for applications filed after the 1st of January 2017, the entire file on patent applications filed with the Luxembourg Office for Intellectual Property.