Due to the adoption of TRIPs, several changes were introduced to adapt the Argentine legislation to the Agreement's minimum standards (such as the term of patent protection and the availability of patent rights in all fields of technology, for example).
Article 33 of TRIPs states that "the term of protection available shall not end before the expiration of a period of 20 years counted from the filing date". Under Article 35 of Law No. 24,481, patents are granted for a non-extendable term of 20 years to be counted as from the application filing date.
Due to the short lifespan of many new technologies, it is often necessary to obtain patent protection as quickly as possible, before the invention become obsolete. However, as a result of the increasing number of patent applications, the Argentine Patent Office (INPI) faces a major backlog of patent filings. As of 2005, INPI has adopted several measures aimed at reducing to a reasonable period of time the prosecution term of patent applications, in order to comply with Article 62.2 of TRIPs.
Article 27 of TRIPs establishes that patents shall be available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step, and are capable of industrial application. However since the interpretation of the patentability requirements of novelty and lack of obviousness may be discretionary, in certain cases such interpretation has been used to reject patent applications (mostly in the pharmaceutical field) which had, for example, been previously granted in the US or Europe.
In view of the above, obtaining proper legal advice, including a strategic analysis to determine the necessary actions to be taken by patent applicants during the patent prosecution process, will avoid unnecessary delays. A careful approach will expedite and assure that the patent is granted and that the invention is protected in the broadest way and in the shortest period of time.
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