PATENT OFFICE OF THE COOPERATION COUNCIL FOR THE ARAB STATESOF THE GULF (GCC) - GC
Jurisdiction - General Information
The Patent Office of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (Gulf Cooperation Council orGCC) is a regional office for the Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises the States United ArabEmirates, Kingdom of Bahrain, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sultanate of Oman, State of Qatar, and State ofKuwait. Certificates of patents granted by the GCC Patent Office secure legal protection of theinventor's rights in all GCC Member States. A patent is validated in the Member States as of the date ofgrant in the GCC.
The GCC Patent Regulation and the Statute of the GCC Patent Office were approved by the Supreme
Council during the 13th summit meeting of the heads of Member States, which was held in Abu Dhabi
on September 21 to 22, 1992. As of October 3, 1998, the GCC Patent Office started receiving
applications.
The Gulf Cooperation Council is neither a member of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) nor of theParis Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
More legal information about intellectual property-related laws and regulations of Gulf Cooperation
Council can be found at this link.

Online Patent Register and Online Gazette
The Gulf Cooperation Council has an Online Register and an Online Gazette.

Features and search functionalities
The online patent register includes only granted patents and has an Arabic, English, French andJapanese interface.
Through the patent register you can retrieve basic information on Legal Status, which can be deductedfrom a code.
The patent register can also be searched by Applicant/Inventor Name, by Priority Data (by priority dateonly).
There is also a previous release of the patent database still working at this link, providing information
about the Legal Status.
On the homepage under the Menu “Patent Gazette” it is possible to access lists of patents andapplications granted, fallen or rejected and to the archived releases.
The online gazette is available in English. It’s coverage is from 2001 (issue no.1) to present, even if no.115 are temporarily not available. Most documents are available in HTML and/or PDF format.

Through the online gazette it is possible to access the Full Publications.

Additional Information
Particularities of patent protection given by the Gulf Cooperation Council
Protection through Patent Term Extension is not available, but referral is made to each country’s
national law.
According to the decision held by the 41st GCC Supreme Council meeting to amend the existing GCC
Patent Law, no new filings were accepted by the GCC Patent Office for GCC patent applications afterJanuary, 6, 2021. Patents filed before this date and granted are valid in the territory of all the member
countries.
Then, the IP Offices of Bahrain and Kuwait (since January 1, 2023) and Qatar (since July 1, 2023), haveresumed the possibility to use the GCC Patent Office as IP authority, however, the applications filed after
the resuming date have a validity limited to the national territory of the filing country.

Search tips
An example of data reported as Legal Status is “Expired” for patent numbers 2148.