Tax Code of the Republic of Belarus

TAX CODE OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

(SPECIAL PART)

December 29, 2009 No. 71-З

(As amended and supplemented on October 18, 2016)

(Extraction)

CHAPTER 28

PATENT FEES

Article 261. Payers of patent fees

Payers of patent fees (hereinafter in this Chapter – payers) are organizations and individuals who in the prescribed manner apply to the state institution “National Center of Intellectual Property" (hereinafter in this Chapter –NCIP) for the performance of legally significant actions.

Article 262. Objects of taxation of patent fees and patent feerates

1. Objects of taxation of patent fees are recognized as legally relevant actions related to:

1.1. patents for invention, including:

1.1.1. filing and preliminary examination of an application for a patent;

1.1.1. extension of the deadline for a patent claiming convention priority;

1.1.1. restoration of the right of conventional priority at the request of an applicant;

1.1.2. filing of an Eurasian application, checking it for compliance with the requirements of the examination on formal grounds and forwarding to the Eurasian Patent Office;

1.1.3. excluded;

1.1.4. publication of information onan application after a preliminary examination with a positive result before the expiry of eighteen months from the date of receipt of the application;

1.1.5. conducting an application examination;

1.1.6. modification of application materials on an applicant's initiative or at the examination request, suggesting the inclusion in the formula of points that are absent in the originally filed and accepted for consideration, the inclusion of items in the formula after the filing of the request on the patent examination of the application;

1.1.7. filingarequest for modification of application materials on an applicant's initiative, except for the cases referred to in subparagraph 1.1.6 of this paragraph;

1.1.8. conversion of a patent application into an utility model application;

1.1.9. extension of the response to a request of examination for each month of the requested extension;

1.1.9. re-examination of an application for the grant of a patent;

1.1.10. registration of an invention in the State Register of inventions of the Republic of Belarus and grant of aninvention patent;

1.1.11. maintenance in force of a patent for years, the maintenance of an Eurasian patent on the territory of the Republic of Belarus;

1.1.12. shipment of application documents of an international application filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), signed in Washington on June 19, 1970 (hereinafter – PCT), to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization;

1.1.13. late entry into the national phase because of an applicant of an international application filed under PCT;

1.1.14. transfer to the national phase of an international application filed under PCT;

1.1.15. restoration of a patent;

1.1.16. extension of the term of a patent;

1.2. utility model patents, including:

1.2.1. filing and examination of an application for a patent;

1.2.11. extension of the deadline for a patent claiming convention priority;

1.2.2. excluded;

1.2.3. filinga request for modification on the initiative of an applicant in application materials;

1.2.4. extension of the response to the request of examination for each month of the requested extension;

1.2.5. registration in the State Register of utility models of the Republic of Belarus and the grant of anutility model patent;

1.2.6. maintenance in force of a patent for each year of validity starting from the first year from the date of filing with the National Center of Intellectual Property;

1.2.7. conversion of an utility model application into an invention application;

1.2.8. extension of the term of a patent;

1.2.9. restoration of a patent;

1.2.10. late entry into the national phase because of an applicant of an international application filed under PCT;

1.2.11. transfer to the national phase of an international application filed under PCT;

1.3. patents for industrial designs, including:

1.3.1. filing and examination of an application for a patent;

1.3.1. extension of the deadline for a patent claiming convention priority;

1.3.2. excluded;

1.3.3. filing a request to amend application materials on an applicant's initiative;

1.3.4. extension of the response to the examination request for each requested renewal month;

1.3.5. registration in the State Register of industrial designs of the Republic of Belarus and the grant of an industrial design patent;

1.3.6. maintenance of a patent in force for each year from the first year from the date of filing an application with the National Center for Intellectual Property;

1.3.7. extension of the term of a patent;

1.3.8. restoration of a patent;

1.4. patents for plant varieties, including:

1.4.1. filing and preliminary examination of an application for a patent;

1.4.2. filinga request for modification on the initiative of an applicant of application materials;

1.4.3. extension of the response to the request of examination for each month of the requested extension;

1.4.4. change of name of a plant variety by an applicant;

1.4.5. conducting an examination of an application for a patent for a plant variety without providing by the applicant the results of tests of plantvarieties;

1.4.6. conducting an examination of an application for a patent for a plant variety with the provision by the applicant of the results of tests ofplant varieties;

1.4.7. registration in the State Register of protected plant varieties of the Republic of Belarus and the grant of a patent and a breedercertificate;

1.4.8. maintenance in force of a patent;

1.5. registration of a trademark and service mark, including:

1.5.1. application for registration of a trademark and a service mark (hereinafter – trademark) and the examination of the claimed designation;

1.5.2. application for a trademark registration under the Madrid Agreement Concerning
the International Registration of Marks of 14 April 1891 and its Protocol of 28 June 1989, verification and forwarding application materials to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization;

1.5.3. application forsubsequent indication, testing and shipment of materials to the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization;

1.5.4. replacement of a national trademark registration by an international trademark registration (Article 4bis of the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marksof 14 April 1891 and its Protocol of 28 June 1989);

1.5.5. claiming registration of a trademark in accordance with the Protocol relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks of 28 June 1989;

1.5.6. renewal of trademark registration, registered in accordance with the Protocol relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marksof 28 June 1989;

1.5.7. filingarequeston entering by an applicant of changes to application materials;

1.5.8. request for allocation of an application for a trademark registration;

1.5.9.extension of the deadline for responding to a request of preliminary examination;

1.5.10. conversion of an application for a collective mark in a trademark application;

1.5.11. re-examination;

1.5.12. extension of the deadline for the submission of a request for re-examination for each month of the requested extension;

1.5.13.extension of the response to a request of examination for each month of the requested extension;

1.5.14. registration of a trademark in the State Register of Trademarks and Service Marks of the Republic of Belarus, publication of information on registration and the grant of a trademark certificate;

1.5.15. registration of a collective mark in the State Register of Trademarks and Service Marks of the Republic of Belarus, publication of information on registration and the grant of acollective markcertificate;

1.5.16. transformation of a collective mark into a trademark;

1.5.17. division of a trademark registration by the distribution of goods in respect of which a trademark is registered;

1.5.18. renewal of a trademark registration;

1.5.19. renewal of a collective mark registration;

1.5.20. six-month term for prolongation of expired validity of the registration;

1.5.21.recognition of a trademark or a designation, used as a trademark, as a well-knowntrademark in the Republic of Belarus;

1.5.22. adding information relating to a well-known trademark in the Republic of Belarus to the list of well-known in the Republic of Belarus of trademarks and issuance of certificates for well-known trademarksin the Republic of Belarus;

1.6.registration of an appellation of origin of goods and (or) granting the right to use an appellation of origin of goods, including:

1.6.1. application for registration and granting the right to use an appellation of origin of goods, applications for granting the right to use the already registered appellation of origin and examination of the claimed designation;

1.6.2. filingan application on entering by the applicant of changes to application materials;

1.6.21. extension of the deadline for responding to the request of preliminary examination for each month of the requested extension;

1.6.22. extension of the period of request for examination of the declared designation for each month of the requested extension;

1.6.3. registration of an appellation of origin of goods in the State Register of Appellations of Origin of Goods of the Republic of Belarus and issuance of certificate for right to use an appellation of origin of goods;

1.6.4. extension of validity of certificate for right to use an appellation of origin of goods;

1.6.5. six-month term for prolongation of expired validity of certificate for the right to use an appellation of origin of goods;

1.7. registration of topologies of integrated circuits, including:

1.7.1. application for registration of a topology of integrated circuits and carrying out of an examination;

1.7.2. extension of the response to the request of examination for each month of the requested extension;

1.7.3. registration in the State register of topologies of integrated circuits and issuing the certificates on a topology of integrated circuits;

1.8. other legally significant actions concerning industrial property objects, including:

1.8.1. modifications to the State registers of industrial property objects, the list of well-known trademarks in the Republic of Belarus, the State register of license contracts, contracts of assignment and agreements of pledge of rights to intellectual property objects of the Republic of Belarus, State register of contracts of complex entrepreneurial license (franchising) of the Republic of Belarus,protective documents on industrial property objects (patents, certificates) and breeder certificates;

1.8.2. duplicate copy of protective documents on industrial property objects (patents, certificates) and breeder certificates;

1.8.3. application for registration of a license agreement, contract of assignment of exclusive rights to inventions, utility models, industrial designs, plant varieties, trademarks, integrated circuits, agreement of pledge of property rights certified by the trademark certificate, contract of complex entrepreneurial license (franchising);

1.8.31.application for registration of modifications to a licensing contract, contract of assignment of exclusive rights to inventions, utility models, industrial designs, plant varieties, trademarks, integrated circuits, agreement of pledge of property rights certified by the trademark certificate, contract of complex entrepreneurial license (franchising), termination of a contract of complex entrepreneurial license (franchising);

1.8.4. excluded;

1.8.5.excluded;

1.8.6. excluded;

1.8.7. submission for official publication of an application for granting to any person the right to use of industrial property objects(open license) or termination of an open license;

1.8.8. submission to theBoard of Appeals of the National Center of Intellectual Property complaints, objections and statements;

1.8.9. provision at a request of extracts from State registers of industrial property objeccts, list of well-known trademarks in the Republic of Belarus, State register of license contracts, contracts of assignment and contracts of pledge of intellectual property objects of the Republic of Belarus, State register of contracts of complex entrepreneurial license (franchising) of the Republic of Belarus;

1.8.10. restoration of missing terms by an applicant stipulated by legislative acts;

1.9. activity of patent attorneys, including:

1.9.1. submission of an application to certification of candidates to patent attorneys;

1.9.1. qualificationexams;

1.9.2. re-qualification examination or a part thereof;

1.9.3. registration of patent attorneys and issuing a certificate of registration as a patent attorney;

1.9.31. renewal of a certificate of registration as a patent attorney;

1.9.4. modificationsto the State register of patent attorneys of the Republic of Belarus;

1.9.5. issue of a duplicate certificate of registration as a patent attorney;

1.9.6. provision at a request of extracts from the State register of patent attorneys of the Republic of Belarus.

2. Rates of patent fees are set according to the Annex23 to this Code.

Article 263 Patent Fee Exemption

1. The payers – individuals, unless otherwise provided by the part two of the present paragraph, shall pay 25 percent of the established amount of patent fees (with the exception of legally significant actions for commitment of which the patent fees are charged according to the paragraphs 4, 15, 43 – 67, 71 – 75, 77 – 84 of the Annex 23 to the present Code).

Exempted from patent fees (with the exception of legally significant actions for commitment of which patent fees are charged according to the paragraphs 43 – 67, 71 – 75, 77 – 84 of the Annex 23 to the present Code) are the payers – individuals:

Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of Socialist Labor, Heroes of Belarus, Full Cavaliers of the Orders of Glory, Labor Glory, Fatherland;

Great Patriotic War veterans, veterans of the war in the territory of other states, disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War, disabled veterans of the war in the territory of other states, family members of the military servants, partisans and guerillas, killed (dead) during the Great Patriotic War and in discharge of (military) duties, referred to in Articles 2 – 4 and 22 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Veterans”;

liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster;

1st group of disabled persons.

The patent fees exemption, covered by the present paragraph, is only provided to persons who are entitled to such exemption given that they are the sole author claiming a patent (certificate) in their name or the sole patent holder (owner of the exclusive right to a topology of integrated circuit) that is the author. In case where a patent (certificate) is claimed by several persons or several persons are the patent holders (owners of the exclusive right to a topology of integrated circuit), the exemption is provided on the condition that a patent (certificate) in their name is claimed by all authors or all authors are the patent holders (owners of the exclusive right to a topology of integrated circuit) and each of them is entitled to analogous exemption.

2. Patent fees are paid at 50 percent of the established amount:

for carrying out of patent examination of an application for the invention if there is a search report or expert opinion prepared by one of the international authorities in accordance with the Patent Cooperation Treaty, or a search report prepared by the international searching authority for the first application when there is an indication to the priority claimed for the date of filing;

for publication of the application on open license starting from the year following the year of its publication.

3. Patent fees, which rates are covered by the paragraphs 1, 4, 18, 27, 35, 43, 44, 62, 68 of the Annex 23 to the present Code, are paid at 85 percent of the payable amount for the application in the electronic form.

4. Exemption from patent fees:

4.1. republican bodies of public administration, courts, law enforcement, tax, customs bodies – for providing at the request of the excerpts from the national registers of industrial property objects, the list of trademarks well-known in the Republic of Belarus, the National Register of license agreements, assignment contracts and agreements of the pledge of rights on intellectual property objects of the Republic of Belarus, the National Register of franchising agreements of the Republic of Belarus, as well as the excerpts from the National Register of patent attorneys of the Republic of Belarus;

4.2. payers – for the commitment of legally significant actions, related to the rectification of mistakes made by the National Center of Intellectual Property.

The provisions of the part one of the present subparagraph are not applied if such mistakes are made by virtue of incomplete or unreliable materials provided by a payer.

4.3. payers – for maintaining in force during the first 5 years of the effect of a patent for invention, resulting from scientific and technical work and created at the expense of the republican and/or local budgetary funds, including national target budgetary funds, also no budgetary funds except for payers that were lapsed exclusive right to invention by an agreement.

5. If a payer is entitled to the simultaneous use of several benefits from patent fees, covered by the present article regarding the same patent fees object, the payer is entitled to the use of one of them by his/her choice.

Article 264. Procedure of calculation and terms of payment of patent fees

1. Patent fees shall be paid bypayers:

residents of the Republic of Belarus – in Belarusian rubles at rates established in basic units at the date of payment;

are not tax residents of the Republic of Belarus and outside the Republic of Belarus in foreign currency (US dollars, Euros, Swiss francs, Russian rubles), unless otherwise stipulated by international treaties of the Republic of Belarus, in the amount determined at rates established in the basic units at the date of payment using the official exchange rate of the Belarusian ruble against the relevant foreign currencies set by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus on the day of payment.

In the case when the taxpayersare taxpayers – residents of the Republic of Belarus and payers who are not tax residents of the Republic of Belarus and outside the Republic of Belarus, the patent fee shall be paid in equal installments in accordance with the procedure established by part one of this paragraph.

2. Patent fees shall be paid by transferring the relevant amounts to the current (settlement) account of the National Center of Intellectual Property with their further transfer to the Republican budget.

3. The document confirming the day and the payment of the patent fee is a payment instruction (its copy) with the mark of Bank execution. In the case of application in electronic form this document is a payment instruction (its copy) with the mark of Bank execution in the form of an electronic document.

The document confirming payment of the patent fees is submitted to the National Center of Intellectual Property when applying for the committing of legally significant actions, if another term is not established by law.

The documents confirming payment of patent fees should be related to only one legally relevant action, which made this payment, contain the name of the legally significant action, the registration number of the application (protection document). In the absence of registration number of the application (protectiondocument) the following shall be added: name of an invention, utility model, industrial design, integrated circuits, name ofplantvarieties, brief description of a trademark or a claimed appellation of origin of goods, as well as information about an applicant.

4. Additional payment of patent fees is made in case of submission of applications or other documents to the National Center of Intellectual Property on the expiry of two months from the date of payment of patent fees in connection with the increase in the level of basic unit in this period.

If the amount of the paid patent fee is not as specified, additional payment of this fee can be made within two months from the date of notification of the need for such payment.

5. The paid patent fee is not refundable, except when the payment was made in excess of the prescribed or when legally significant actionwas not made in respect of object of industrial property for which the fee was paid.

In the cases referred to in the first part of this paragraph, at the request of the payer (the person acting on his/her behalf, including a patent attorney) applying to the National Center of Intellectual Property before the expiration of three years from the date of payment of patent fees, funds received in payment of patent fees, or overpaid amounts of patent fees are going back by the National Center of Intellectual Property, or counted them in payment by the payer of other patent fees. The compliance offunds received in payment of patent fees for legally significant action, which has not been committed, or the overpaid amount of patent fees to the established amount is determined on the date of receipt of an application for the offset.