Foreign Grace Periods

Foreign Grace Periods, Prior Art, and Requirements for a Claim in Provisional Patent Applications
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Country WIPO country Code* Grace Period Grace Period Description
(from WIPO 06/2017)**
Prior Art Definitions
(from WIPO 06/2017)***
Netherlands NL 6 months before priority/filing 1. Disclosure not to be taken into account in determining novelty if it occurred within six months before the filing date due to:
(a) an evident abuse in relation to the applicant or his legal predecessor, or
(b) display of the invention by the applicant or his legal predecessor at an official or officially recognized international exhibition.
2. The applicant shall state, when filing the application, that the invention has been so displayed, and submit proof within a prescribed period.
1. Everything made available to the public by written or oral description, use or in any other way before the filing date (priority date).
2. Contents of previously filed Netherlands patent applications entered on the patent register on or after the filing date (priority date), and of certain European and international patent applications with an earlier filing date (priority date) published on or after that date.
New Zealand NZ 6 months before priority/filing An invention shall not be deemed to have been anticipated by:
1. Disclosure at any time before the filing date (priority date) of matter obtained the applicant or his predecessor in title and published without his consent, provided that;
(a) where the applicant or his predecessor in title learned of the publication beforehand, the application or application in a convention country was filed as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter; and
(b) the invention was not commercially worked in New Zealand before the filing date (priority date) by, or with the consent of, the applicant or his predecessor in title (other than for the purpose of reasonable trial).
2. Disclosure at any time before the filing date (priority date);
(a) in any other application for a patent in respect of the same invention, contravening the rights of the applicant or his predecessor in title;
(b) by use or publication of the invention without the consent of the applicant or his predecessor in title in consequence of any disclosure of the invention by the applicant for the other application.
(c) by the communication of the invention to a Government Department or person authorized thereby to investigate the invention, or of anything done for that investigation.
3. Disclosure within six months before the filing date (priority date) (calculated from the opening of the exhibition or the reading or publication of the paper) by:
(d) display or use of the invention with the consent of the inventor at a declared international or industrial exhibition;
(e) publication of the invention in consequence of the display or use of the invention at such exhibition;
(f) use of the invention during the period of the exhibition without the consent of the true and first inventor;
(g) in a paper read by the inventor before a learned society or published with his consent in the transactions of such a society;
4. Disclosure within one year before the filing date (priority date) by public working of the invention by, or with the consent of, the applicant or his predecessor in title for the purpose of reasonable trial.
1. Contents of granted patents published before the filing date (priority date) and dated within 50 years before the filing date.
2. Other documents published before the filing date (priority date), other than foreign patent applications filed more than 50 years before the filing date and abridgments and extracts of such applications.
3. Any use in New Zealand before the filing date (priority date).
Nicaragua NI 1 year before priority/filing Disclosure not to be considered as the state of the art if it occurred within one year before the filing date (priority date) due to:
1. publication of a patent application due to an error on the part of the Office;
2. publication of a patent application filed by a person not entitled to the grant of a patent;
3. acts, other than filing a patent application, by the inventor or his successor in title;
4. acts committed in breach of contract or unlawfully against the inventor or his successor in title.
1. Everything disclosed or made accessible to the public in any form before the filing date (priority date).
2. Contents of subsequently published Nicaraguan patent applications with an earlier filing date (priority date).
Nigeria NG 6 months Disclosure not to be deemed to have been made available to the public if it occurred within six months before the filing date by display of the invention by the inventor or his successor in title at an official or officially recognized international exhibition. Everything made available to the public by a written or oral description, use or in any other way before the filing date (priority date).
Norway NO 6 months before priority/filing Disclosure not to be taken into account in determining novelty and inventive step if it occurred within six months before the filing date due to:
1. an evident abuse in relation to the applicant or his predecessor in title;
2. display of the invention by the applicant or his predecessor in title at an official or officially recognized international exhibition as described in the Convention Relating to International Exhibitions of 22 November 1928, as last amended on 24 June 1982.
1. Everything made available to the public in writing, in lectures, by use or otherwise before the filing date (priority date).
2. Contents of certain Norwegian, European and international patent applications with an earlier filing date (priority date) published on or after that date.
Oman OM 12 months before priority/filing Disclosure not to be taken into account if it occurred within 12 months before the filing date (priority date):
1. by reason or inconsequence of acts committed by the applicant or his predecessor in title;
2. due to an abuse committed by a third party with regard to the applicant or his predecessor in title.
Everything disclosed to the public anywhere in the world, by publication in tangible form or by oral disclosure, by use or in any other way, prior to the filing date (priority date).

*Not part of PCT
**Source: www.wipo.int/scp/en/national_laws/grace_period.pdf
***Source: www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/scp/en/national_laws/prior_art.pdf