First aid for Patent application

The Information Section of the Belgian Office for Intellectual Property (IPObel) can answer all your questions on patents and related topics. This section issues certified copies and other official certificates, and carries out patent examinations upon request.

Contact Point

The Contact Point is the first point of contact for all your questions about intellectual property rights. You can reach us by telephone during office hours on 0800 120 33 (free of charge) (or from abroad: +32 800 120 33).

We can also accommodate you in the Atrium building (ground floor), Rue du Progrès 50, 1210 Brussels. The Contact Point is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ONLY by appointment.

The Contact Point provides a wide range of brochures with information on patents, trademarks, drawings and models, copyright and plant breeders' rights.

You can also file patent applications, supplementary protection certificates and plant breeders' rights and pay the corresponding fees (only by bank card, no VISA).

Certified copies

To claim priority when extending your patent protection to other countries, or within the same country, but also when negotiating for licences, or in case of a legal dispute, a certified copy is usually required. This document includes an official copy of the first patent application, as it was filed.

Please note that if a request for a certified true copy is submitted before the publication of the patent application only those who are authorised (in particular the owner, applicant, agent or representative and everyone who has a legitimate power of attorney), can obtain that type of copy.

You can obtain such a copy by sending a request to the IPObel,. This can be done

• by post
  Office for Intellectual Property
  City Atrium
  Rue du Progrès 50
  1210 Brussels
• by e-mail
  piie_doc@economie.fgov.be

These documents are free of charge.

Attestations

If you need an official attestation of a document from the Belgian patent register, you can make a request to the IPObel. Excerpts from Belgian patents, European patents with a Belgian grant and supplementary protection certificates are all eligible. As these are already publicly available, identification is not required. An official attestation has the advantage that it contains the most up-to-date information on the patent and that it is an official and legally compliant extract.

In order to obtain an official attestation, you must send a request to the IPObel.

This can be done

• by post
  Office for Intellectual Property
  City Atrium
  Rue du Progrès 50
  1210 Brussels
• by e-mail to
  piie_doc@economie.fgov.be.

These documents are free of charge.

Epoque examination

If you are unable to carry out a reliable patent search yourself, the IPObel can carry it out for you for a fee. This type of online Epoque examination is carried out, with complete discretion, by the team from the Information Section itself. The results are compiled in the form of the bibliographical information of the patents (applications) found.

Please note: This type of examination does not include an official novelty report, as is done by an official examination instance after the filing of a patent application. The Epoque examinations, which are carried out by the IPObel, are purely informal and are done at the request of the applicant. The results of this patent examination are purely informative for the applicant and have no advisory or legal value for the further steps the applicant wishes to take.

An Epoque examination costs 2 euro per minute of connection, which represents the cost of requesting the data from the EPO in The Hague. It takes between 1 and 3 hours to retrieve the patent data. If you wish to make use of this, you can send a request to the IPObel at the following e-mail address: piie_doc@economie.fgov.be.

In that request, you should indicate that you want a patent examination, mention your invoicing data with your company number or your state registration number and your signature, as well as a good description of your invention (possibly with drawings). You may also use the application form for examination in the online Epoque-system (French) (DOC, 763 KB).

For further information, please contact the Information Section:

• on +32 2 277 90 11,
• or via e-mail piie_doc@economie.fgov.be.

Examples of epoque examination

Online searches

Every patent granted in Belgium is listed in the Belgian Patent Register, also called eRegister. This register is part of the Benelux Patent Platform where you can consult the Belgian patents, the European patents valid in Belgium and the supplementary protection certificates. The eRegister includes the complete Belgian patent texts, as well as the bibliographical data and even the correspondence between the Patent Office and the patent holders. Via the Benelux Patent Platform you can check, free of charge and without prior registration, whether an invention has been previously registered or not.

Furthermore, the IPObel provides a concise publication of the essential elements of delivered patents in the Patent Bulletin, and the list of filed patents.

You can also use the freely accessible online databases such as Espacenet, the Federated Register and Patentscope to find out whether an invention has previously been registered as a patent.

Translation of patents

Automatic translate software is available for the public at the website of the European Patent Office. This allows for machine translations of patents using the Esp@cenet database. This translation is for informational purposes only and has no legal value.