EXTENSION OF THE TERM OF PROTECTION OF A PATENT IN EL SALVADOR.

Patents in El Salvador are granted for a term of 20 years of protection, counted fromfrom the date of submission of the national application, however in the case of PCT applications that enter the national phase in our country, the filing date that is recognizes is that of the International Application.

With the reforms carried out in our legislation, following the ratification by the
Salvador of the Free Trade Agreement signed between the countries of Central America, Republic Dominican Republic and the United States (CAFTA-DR), it is possible to request an extension of the deadline protection of a patent, that is, the twenty-year term ends on a date after
which would correspond, but it cannot be extended for more than 550 days.

The request to extend this period is possible for patent applications filed
after January 20, 2006, and applies in the following cases:

a) If, for reasons attributable to the Registry, it is delayed in granting the registration of a patent
for more than 5 years, counted from the date of submission of the application for registration of The patent;

b) If, for reasons attributable to the Registry, it delays in granting the registration of a patent for more than 3 years, counted from the date of submission of the application for examination of
background;

c) If for reasons attributable to the competent authority for granting records for the marketing of pharmaceutical products, it takes more than 5 years to grant registration years, counted from the date of submission of registration. What is established in this literal applies, only if there is a patent for the product registered in El Salvador and that its term protection is in force.

Said request must be presented to the entity in charge and it will proceed to evaluate the same in order to analyze the reasons and circumstances that caused the delay in the deadline. A
Once evaluated, it will depend on the criteria of the competent authority whether or not the
extension of the term of patent protection.

To date, only one request to extend the deadline has been submitted in our country. protection of a patent, after the entry into force of this legal provision, without However, there has been interest in this topic from many patent owners.}