New Requirement for Payment of Annuities on Brunei Re-registration Patents

Brunei Darussalam’s Patents Order, 2011 came into force on 01 January 2012. As a result, re-registration patents in Brunei are now subject to payment of local annuities to keep the patent in force.

The earliest fee is due on the fourth anniversary of the filing date of the foreign (GB/EP(GB)/MY/SG) patent on which the registration is based. Further fees are due on each subsequent anniversary until the expiry of 20 years from that filing date. No fee is payable on any anniversary that is prior to 01 January 2012. Each annuity may be paid up to 06 months late with payment of monthly surcharge.

The annuity payment must be accompanied by evidence that the basic foreign patent has not been revoked as of the date of applying for renewal. We shall normally be able to obtain the necessary evidence of the foreign patent’s status on our side from the public online registers of MyIPO, IPOS and the UKIPO.

We are able to handle the renewal of re-registration patents in Brunei at competitive rates. If we are not the existing agents, please provide the following minimum information when instructing us or sending any enquiries:

1. Brunei patent registration number (if possible, please provide a copy of the certificate of registration).
2. Foreign (GB, EP(GB), MY or SG) patent number, date of filing and date of grant.
3. Confirmation that the foreign patent has not been revoked.

Our schedule of charges for Brunei is available upon request.

This briefing note updates and supersedes the original version dated 16 May 2012.

Special Remarks Currently, there are complications surrounding re-registrations that are based on older MY patents having a term of 15 years from the date of grant. It is expected that further guidance on this matter will be issued by Brunei’s Patent Registry Office in due course.

Last updated: 10 August 2012