We are writing to inform you about a new directive issued by the Intellectual Property Department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in Qatar. This directive concerns the payment of annuity fees.

Under the new policy, if three years pass without a decision being made on a patent application, the office will not accept payment of the annuity starting from the 4th year until a decision is made on the application and the patent is granted. At that point, all outstanding annual fees must be settled.

We have reached out to the Patent Office for clarification on this decision and to understand how to verify the status of applications, particularly since the electronic system does not provide this information. Additionally, we seek clarification on whether the new rules will apply immediately to all property rights or if there will be a cut-off date for the continuation of the old rules. We will share a comprehensive update on this matter as soon as we receive their response.

Please note that this decision doesn't require the payment of the third annual fee at the time of filing. For any application filed online, the second annual fee is paid along with the filing fees. Also, when filing any patent application under the PCT scheme, if the third fee is due at the time of filing, it is paid manually after the issuance of the application number by the Qatari patent office .