Inventions can be protected as patents or utility models on the grounds of the Patent Act and the Utility Model Act, which entered into force on 23 May 1994.
In 2023, 32 patent applications, 39 utility model applications and 31 applications for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products were filed (See full statistics). Estonian applicants filed 24 patent applications and 36 utility model applications. Estonian applicants filed no international patent application for forwarding to WIPO.
The Estonian Patent Office made 66 examination decisions (including 38 for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products) on patent applications and granted 13 patents. 56 examination decisions on utility model registration applications were made and 32 utility models were registered. The office made 38 decisions on applications for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products, and 24 supplementary protection certificates were granted.
By 31 December 2023, the number of pending applications was 53 patent and 42 utility model registration applications and 118 applications for supplementary protection of medicinal products and plant protection products.
In 2020, employees of the patent department started to take EPO’s Convergence of Practice working groups. In 2023, Ülo Anijalg participated in the EPO working group on requirements for drawings (WG7) and Veera Tereštšenkova in the working group on issuing and accepting priority documents (CPC).
Patents
Patent protection is granted to all scientific and technological inventions. Computer programs, plant or animal varieties, and methods for treatment and diagnostic methods are not patentable.
Estonian ID card is required for entering into the portal of electronic reception of patent applications. An application can only be filed with the Estonian Patent Office after the applicant or the patent attorney has signed it digitally. 93% of applicants used the possibility of e-filing of an application in 2023.
From the patent applications filed in 2023, 13% were filed by applicants from EU member states (excluding Estonia), 3% by applicants from USA, 78% by Estonian applicants and 7% by other applicants.
The Estonian Patent Office examines the compliance of filed patent applications with the formal requirements and carries out substantive examination of the invention, examining the novelty of the invention worldwide, the inventive step and industrial applicability.
In 2023 the main reasons for rejection or withdrawal of patent applications were the non-compliance of the invention with the formal requirements (50%), the non-compliance with the patentability criteria (21%) or the nature of the invention was not disclosed in the patent application, the scope of patent protection was unclear (14% of cases).
The average duration of the examination of a patent application from filing the application to reaching a decision the patent is 26.7 months.
The patent application is published in 18 months from the filing date or priority date. The registration of the invention in the register of patents is deemed the grant of a patent. A traditional letters patent is issued to the patentee. The term of validity of the patent is 20 years from the filing date of the patent application; a renewal fee must be paid for each year of validity.
Since 1 January 2013, the Patent Department examines applications for supplementary protection for medical products and plant protection products. Supplementary protection for medical products and plant protection products is valid for five years after the patent has expired. For medications used in pediatrics, supplementary protection can be renewed for another six months. Since 2000, the total number of filed applications is 548.
In 2015 The Estonian Patent Office joined the international pilot program of Global Patent Prosecution Highway – GPPH. Under GPPH a patent examination system is applied where – upon the request of the applicant – a participating patent office uses the results of other participating offices that have examined the same patent application, resulting in faster examination of the application. By the end of 2023, the search results of Estonian examiners have been used 23 times (US – 17, AU – 2, DE – 3 and RU – 1) and the Estonian Patent Office has used the results of USPTO twice. The statistics are published on the web page of the Japan Patent Office.
On 1 January 2017 the Estonian Patent Office joined the WIPO Digital Access Service (WIPO DAS), an electronic system for accessing priority documents. The DAS system allows applicants to:
- add the first application document (priority document) to WIPO digital database via Estonian Patent Office as depositing Office;
- in case a priority exists, when filing an application, to present only an access code to the accessing Office to retrieve a document from WIPO digital database, not the document itself certifying the priority claim.
Service is applicable for national patent applications and utility model registration applications. Access to priority documents is only available to patent offices participating in WIPO DAS system. In 2023, 14 priority documents have been added to the WIPO DAS database upon the applicant’s request (3 patent applications and 11 applications for registration of a utility model).
Since 2017, altogether 50 patent priority documents and 53 utility model priority documents have been added.
Disputes concerning patents are resolved in the Board of Appeals and in court. In 2023, none of the decisions on a patent application made by the Estonian Patent Office were opposed, but there was one appeal concerning the decision of the Patent Office on a patent application. The appeal was withdrawn.
13 patents granted in 2023 belong to Estonian owners.
European Patents
Inventions can be protected by the European patent in Estonia since 1 July 2002, when Estonia became a full member of the European Patent Organization (EPO). Starting from that date Estonia can be designated in the European patent application as a state where a European patent is intended to be validated. Moreover, Estonian and foreign applicants can file a European patent application via the Estonian Patent Office to the EPO.
To validate a European patent in Estonia the proprietor should file a translation of the patent specification into Estonian with the Estonian Patent Office and pay the prescribed fee for making it available to the public within 3 months from the date of notification of the grant of the European patent by the EPO. Upon payment of an additional state fee, the term for submitting the translation can be extended by 2 months.
The European Patent valid in Estonia is legally equal to the Estonian patent. The Estonian Patent Office keeps the register of the European Patents valid in Estonia.
To keep a European Patent valid in Estonia the proprietor has to pay a renewal fee for each year of validity, starting from the second year after the EPO has notified of the grant of the European Patent. The state fee can be paid up to 6 months before the due date for payment or, in case of paying the supplementary fee, up to 6 months after the due date for payment. The due date for payment is the last day of the calendar month in which the year of validity of the European patent starts.
The first European patents entered into force in Estonia in 2004. In 2023 there were 939 European patent applications filed, 936 (99%) of them electronically. By the end of 2023 there were 11,053 European patents valid in Estonia.
Since 2019, there have been 3 pledges and 8 licences registered in the register of European patents valid in Estonia.
The Unitary Patent (UP) entered into force on 1 June 2023. Unitary Patents, as well as European patents, are issued by the European Patent Office (EPO). If a European patent has been issued, the proprietor of the patent can submit an application for a patent with unitary effect to EPO within one month after the publication of a corresponding notice in the patent bulletin. Application for UP is free of charge. As of 30 January 2024, 19,194 UP applications have been submitted to EPO, of which 18,645 have been registered, 11 applications have been rejected. Most of the applications are from the countries of the European Patent Convention (EPC), USA, Japan, South Korea and China. Registered UPs are automatically valid in the territory of 17 EU Member States. These countries include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden. 10 UPs have been registered for Estonian applicants.
Utility models
The same inventions that can be protected with a patent, can also be protected with a utility model (excluded are inventions concerning biotechnology).
Utility models differ from patents in the following aspects:
- cheaper;
- registration system is applied;
- shorter examination time;
- requirements for the inventive step are less strict;
- combination of inventions cannot be protected, i.e. the protection of for example method and device cannot be applied for with the same application;
- maximum term of validity is 10 years.
The Estonian Patent Office began electronic reception of utility model applications in November 2008. Estonian ID card is required for the entry into the portal. Anyone can fill in the application for the registration of a utility model, but the application can be filed with the Estonian Patent Office only after the applicant or the patent attorney has signed it digitally. 92% of applicants used the possibilities of e-filing of an application in 2023.
From the utility model applications received in 2023, 92% were from Estonian applicants, 5% from Finland and 3% from USA.
Only worldwide new inventions involving an inventive step and capable of industrial application may be protected by utility model. In the course of processing a registration application of a utility model, the Estonian Patent Office examines the compliance of the application with formal requirements and, according to the amendments to the Utility Models Act valid since 1 January 2012, carries out a state of art search. The Estonian Patent Office forwards the search report to the applicant. The applicant can make corrections and amendments in the application based on the report within two months from the issue of the search report, but it is not mandatory. Only after registration does the utility model become public. If the invention is not new, not industrially applicable or does not have an inventive step, any person may file an action in court for revocation of the registration.
When the registration application complies with the requirements, the invention is registered in the register of utility models and a utility model certificate is issued. The average processing time of a utility model registration application is 12.6 months, which is a much shorter time compared to that of the patent application.
The term of legal protection of a utility model is four years from the filing date. After that, the term of protection may be renewed for up to 10 years by paying the renewal fee: initially for four years and after that for another two years.
| Estonia | 161 |
| Finland | 14 |
| Czech Republic | 5 |
| China | 3 |
| Bulgaria | 2 |
2 licences have been registered in the register of utility models since 2019.
Layout design of integrated circuit
On 16 March 1999 the layout designs of integrated circuits act entered into force. In 2023, no registration applications for the layout designs of integrated circuits were filed with the Estonian Patent Office.
