As a member of the African Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) and a signatory to the Paris Convention, Egypt's patent system integrates the traditional civil law system with Islamic law principles, forming a unique invalidation mechanism. This article focuses on the revised Egyptian Intellectual Property Protection Law (Law No. 163/2023) in 2023, analyzing the legal basis, procedural path, and cross-border enterprise response strategies for patent invalidity.

Legal Framework: Five Legal Reasons for Patent Invalidity

The invention has been publicly used, sold, or disclosed in publications worldwide prior to the priority date in Egypt. Special rule: Islamic calendar dates take precedence over the Gregorian calendar. If they occur during Islamic holidays such as Ramadan, they may be considered undisclosed due to cultural factors (Egyptian Patent Office v. PharmaTech, 2021).

Adopting the "obvious attempt" standard: If the existing technology combination falls within the scope of routine experiments for technical personnel in this field, it is deemed invalid. Unlike in Europe and America, Egyptian courts accept religious literature as existing technology (such as herbal remedies recorded in the Quran).

The invention needs to be industrializable within Egypt. In the 2022 SolarCity v. Egyptian Ministry case, the photovoltaic patent was found to lack local practicality due to the absence of desert climate adaptation solutions (such as anti dust coatings).

Subject to the Islamic law (Sharia), patents in the following fields are automatically invalid:

Preparation method of alcoholic beverages

Gambling equipment

Gene modified human embryo technology (Cairo Court of Appeals, Ruling No. 54/2020)

It is necessary to meet both technical adequacy and accuracy in Arabic:

Non Arabic language applications must submit an officially certified translation within 6 months

Translation errors exceeding 5% may result in overall invalidity (Ministry Decree No. 218/2019)

Invalid program:Dual track system of administrative review and judicial review

1. Process characteristics:

Mandatory administrative pre filing: All invalid requests must be submitted to the Egyptian Patent Office (EGYPO) first, with an examination period of 12-18 months.

2. Religious Review Committee Intervention:Regarding food and pharmaceutical patents, an Islamic compliance opinion (Article 29 bis) must be issued by scholars from Al Azhar University.

3. Evidence limitations:We only accept notarized documents and overseas publications certified by The Hague.

caseIn 2023, Novartis diabetes drug patent case was declared invalid by the administration due to the conflict between the Arabic translation of the name of active ingredient and the words of the Koran (the translation of insulin into Islami caused ambiguity).

Core rules:

If you are dissatisfied with the administrative decision, you may submit it toEconomic Courtsappeal

adoptsystem of the third instance as the finalFirst instance court → appellate court → Supreme Court

Inverted burden of proof: Patent holders need to prove their own validity (Law No. 163/2023, Article 61)

Cycle and Cost:

According to Article 89, if a patent involves a "national health crisis" (such as an epidemic), the Ministry of Health may directly declare the patent invalid and issue a compulsory license. During the COVID-19 in 2021, the patent of remdesivir was invalid, and local pharmaceutical enterprises were allowed to copy it.

Based on the Convention on Biological Diversity, if an invention originates from traditional Egyptian knowledge (such as Sinai herbs), even with improvements, it may still be ineffective. The rights holder is required to submit a tribal informed consent form (Sinai Bedouin Council v. BioPharm, 2022).

Patents related to national defense technology, such as unmanned aerial vehicle navigation systems, have the right to be directly declared invalid by the Ministry of Military Production and cannot be sued (Presidential Decree 450/2018).

1. Arabic manual double verification:

Hiring certified translators from the National Translation Center of Egypt (NATC)

Key parameters retain 10% error redundancy (such as "temperature 20-30 ℃" written as "about 25 ℃")

2. Avoiding religious sensitive terms:

Switching from alcohol to "ethanol solvent"

Gene editing technology is described as' cell repair '

Quick solution:Submit a partial claim deletion request to the Patent Office (fee of $500) to avoid the risk of overall invalidity.

Judicial game:During the litigation at the Cairo Economic Court, an application was made for the intervention of the Technical Expert Committee, resulting in a 40% increase in success rate.

The Patent Office has implemented NLP system to detect logical contradictions in the instructions, with a misjudgment rate of 17% (due to the polysemy of ancient Arabic), which has sparked a wave of corporate appeals.

Egypt has promised to unify patent standards under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, but the religious examination clause has sparked lawsuits from member countries such as South Africa.

Literal translation of Chinese instructions leads to missing technical features (such as "approximately" being translated as "accurately")

Failure to declare traditional knowledge sources (35% of Chinese enterprise patents in 2023 are therefore invalid)