Pursuant to the 41st meeting of the Supreme Council of the GCC, which was held on January 5, 2021 in Saudi Arabia, the GCC Patent Office has stopped accepting new patent applications as of January 6, 2021. The GCC Patent Office has been the regional office for acquiring patent protection in all GCC Member States comprising Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain (the GCC Member States).
Applicants seeking patent protection in any of the six GCC member states will now need to file an application directly with the Patent Office in each state, or file national phase applications using the PCT process. Based on the available information at this point of time, the GCC Patent Office will continue to operate for maintaining the pending and granted applications.
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