DWPI country coverage update — Changes to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Kind Codes

As a result of customer feedback, the kind code for Gulf Cooperation Council patents in Derwent World Patents Index^® (DWPI^SM) has been changed from B to A to reflect that this is the first stage of publication for records filed through this patent office.

From update 201260 onward, all new GCC patents have the kind code A, with back-file corrections subsequently appearing to change the kind code of records already in DWPI.

DWPI users are encouraged to review any current Alerts or search strategies to ensure the correct patent kind is being searched.

About the Gulf Cooperation Council patent coverage
The member states of the GCC are: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The GCC does not form part of the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) and is not a signatory to the Paris Convention, but it does conform to the priority rules of the Convention, meaning that a GCC application can claim priority from a prior Convention application.

A patent granted under the GCC is enforceable across all GCC states, with a 20-year term of protection from date of filing applying in each of the member territories (compared to a 15-year term of protection granted under individual national patent legislation). It is possible to file in one or more GCC states and also the central GCC Patent Office simultaneously.

DECEMBER 2012

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