Yes, a new product or service could have different intellectual property rights some of which require protection through a registration procedure. For example, if a new product involves an inventive step, then you should patent it. If this new product’s aesthetic shape is original then you should also protect its design. Moreover, the new product should also be identifiable through a unique brand name which you should therefore also protect by registering it as a trademark.

This is possible through Malta’s accession to international rules or treaties on industrial property, including EU membership; the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO); the Paris Convention; the European Patent Convention (EPO); the Patent Cooperation Treaty; and others offering regional or international filing routes for protection of a trade mark, patent or design as applicable. More information may also be obtained directly from these supra national IP Offices of which Malta is a member at the following sites: https://www.euipo.europa.eu/en; https://www.epo.org/en and https://www.wipo.int/portal/en/index.html.

Article 7(4) of Legal Notice 99 of 2007 clearly states that failure to comply with the requirements laid down in sub-article (2) and (3) would render the European Patent void ad initio. Hence, once the right has not been established in Malta in the first place it is not possible to effect a re-establishment of such right.

A published European patent receives the same protection as provided for a national patent application, therefore, provisional protection for a European Patent is automatically provided at no cost.

A SPC grants a further term of protection (maximum 5 years) over and above the standard term of protection of 20 years for a medicinal or plant protection patent since the owners of such patents would not have been able to use the patent before receiving the necessary marketing authorisations which very often involve lengthy procedures.

The term of protection of a SPC is calculated as from the date of notification of the first marketing authoristation and is equal to the period which has elapsed between the filing of the patent application and grant of the first EU marketing authorisation, less five years. A SPC can be granted even if this calculation produces a negative result. However, a SPC is not usually useful unless it has a positive duration. SPCs having a negative duration are sometimes sought because EU legislation enacted in 2007, concerning paediatric medicines, provides for a six month extension of the basic SPC term in certain circumstances. This can bring a negative duration into the positive.