The Egyptian law has been amended to the effect that the annuity due date of PCT National phase applications will be calculated for a period of 20 years from the International filing date rather than the national filing date. The Patent Office has issued an official notification on June 6th, 2009 informing that the protection period accorded to all national phase applications of PCT filed in Egypt will be 20 years calculated from the International filing date. 1) PCT Applications filed after June 6th, 2009PCT Applications that do not claim priority will be subject to payment of annuity fees of two years and half on filing; PCT Applications that claim priority will be subject to payment of annuity fees of one year and half on filing. 2) PCT Applications filed prior to June 6th, 2009A grace period of six months has been provided by the Egypt Patent Office for complying with the amended patent annuity law. PCT Applications that do not claim priority will be subject to payment of unpaid annuity fees of two years and half on filing; PCT Applications that claim priority will be subject to payment of unpaid annuity fees of one year and half on filing. For already-issued Letters Patents, the Patent Office should issue an official letter stating that the term of all national phase patents deriving from PCT applications with international filing dates on or after 6 September 2003, when Egypt joined the PCT, will be 20 years from the international filing date. Thus, there will be no need to have each Letters Patent corrected to reflect the new term. Back renewal fees are therefore now payable retroactively in respect of both pending patent applications and granted patents within 6 months of the issuance of the decision, i.e. before 6 December 2009.
