Application prosessing in Norway

If you file your application using our digital application guide, the application form will help you fulfil several of the formal requirements for the information we need. You can choose to pay while filing or request an invoice. You will be given a 4-week payment deadline. The application fee covers application processing and is non-refundable.

When you have filed a patent application, we will examine it for any formal deficiencies. These may include payment of more than 10 claims, any declaration of rights, name and address of inventors, approved language or deficiencies in priority claims. Within a few days, we will send you a letter with a response deadline of 3 months if there are any deficiencies in the application.

If you receive this letter, it is crucial to respond within the set deadline. Failure to pay or reply by the due date will result in shelving the application. However, you can request us to resume processing your application by addressing the deficiencies highlighted in our letter. Please note that a resumption fee will be invoiced.

If we are unable to process the application, we will send a letter explaining the reasons for this decision.

3-6 months after you filed the application, we begin assessing whether your invention meets the requirements for obtaining a patent. When we process your patent application, we look in all open sources, such as patents, professional literature, the internet, reports, standards and more to see if we find anything that shows the same or a similar invention as the one described in your application. 

4-7 months after you filed the application, you will receive a letter from us with our first assessment of whether your application can become a patent. Here we inform about what we have found of similar inventions and how we assess it in relation to the content of your application. If there are deficiencies or errors in the application, these will also be commented on. You have 6 months to respond to our letter. In your reply, we want you to present arguments if you disagree with our assessment, or that you file amended patent claims so that they differ more from what is already known. 

Within 12 months. If you intend to apply for a patent for the same invention in other countries, you must do so within 12 months of filing your application if you want to keep the priority given by your filing date.

Read more about priority.

Read more about entering the national or regional phase (lenke til teksten om videreføring for uerfarne)

Within approximately 3 months of your reply, we will reconsider your application based on your arguments, and the amended patent claims, if you filed it.

If you have filed amended or new patent claims, we will start by checking that the patent claims are based on the application as it was when it was originally filed. An application cannot be amended so that you apply for a patent for something that was not stated in the application when it was filed.

If we do not agree with you, we will send you another letter with our assessment, stating what needs to be changed in order for the application to be approved, or why it cannot be approved. You will be given a deadline of 3 months to respond to this letter. 

If we agree with you and believe that your application meets the requirements for a patent, we will send you a written notification of notification (approval) and invoice for a fee. Your application will then be approved for patent (granted). 

18 months after you filed the application, the application is published, this is also called publicly available. Then it will be published and available to everyone, in the patent register. Correspondence in the proceedings will also be made public. You can find the application and correspondence in our database, and the application will also be available in Espacenet. 

If you withdraw the application before 18 months have passed, it will not be published. If you have special reasons, you can also request that specific trade secrets not be made public. 

Provisional protection gives you protection against patent infringement while your application is being processed. The application is protected from the day it is publicly available, provided that the application is written in Norwegian, or that you have submitted a translation of the patent claims into Norwegian. Link to the provisional protection page. 

A patent can be maintained for up to 20 years from the day you file an application if you pay annual fees. You must pay an annual fee for each year. If you do not pay the necessary fees, the patent expires. 

After a patent has expired, everyone has the right to exploit the invention. In certain cases, however, the right of others to exploit the invention may be limited by other legislation. This may, for example, be contrary to good business practice under the Marketing Control Act, or be because it is protected by copyright. 

The costs of applying for a patent depend on several things, including the size of your company and how many countries you wish to apply for patent protection.

If the patent is granted you must also pay a grant fee and annual fees in addition to the application fee.

If you are using professional help, the cost will depend on how much assistance you need, and the prices determined by the patent agency or attorney.

You can withdraw your application by sending us a written message via Altinn, by e-mail or post. Dismissed applications cannot be withdrawn.