Book I
Patents of inventions, Utility Models, Layout Design of
Integrated Circuit and Undisclosed Information

Section ( 1 )
Patents of Inventions & Utility Models

Article ( 1 )
Patent of invention shall be granted in accordance with the provisions of this law to any new, industrially applicable invention having inventive step whether it is related to new industrial products or new industrial processes or new application of known industrial methods .
Patent of invention shall independently be granted to any amendment or improvement or addition to a patented invention provided that it is new, industrially applicable having inventive step as outlined in the above clause and shall be issued in the name of the owner of the said amendment, improvement or addition in accordance with the provisions of this law.

Article ( 2 )
No patent of invention shall be granted in the following cases :
1. Inventions the exploitation of which involves national security, public disorder; immorality, or cause serious environmental damage; or prejudice the life or health of human or animal or plant .
2. Discoveries and scientific principles; mathematical methods, programs and charts.
3. diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of human or animal.
4. Plants and animals no matter how rare or unique it is and essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals excluding microorganism and non-biological or microbiological methods for producing plants or animals..
5. Organs; tissues; living cells; natural biological materials, nucleic acids and Genomes.

Article ( 3 )
An invention shall not be considered partially or totally new in the following two cases:
1. If patent has been already issued for the invention or part thereof in Egypt or abroad before the date of filing.
2. If the invention has been publicly used or exploited in Egypt, or abroad or disclosed in a manner which enable experts to exploit it before filing patent application in Egypt.
In this respect disclosure of invention in national or international exhibitions during six months preceding to the date of filing is not considered as disclosure,
Terms and conditions of disclosure shall be specified in the Implementing Regulations.

Article ( 4 )
Without prejudice to the provisions of International Conventions valid in Egypt, any Egyptian or foreign natural or juridical person having an actual and active activity in member state of WTO or citizen of a country according Egypt similar treatment , may file a patent application and consequent rights according to the provisions of this law.

Citizen of member state of WTO shall enjoy any advantage, preference, or immunity accorded by any other law to citizens of any country in respect of the rights stipulated in this section unless such advantage, preference, or immunity accorded by :
( A ) Legal Assistant Conventions or General conventions for enforcement of Laws.
( B ) Conventions related to Intellectual Property Rights which became effective before 1 January 1995.

Article ( 5 )
The Patent Office shall provide a special register in which patent applications and Utility Model applications shall be entered together with all particulars relating thereto including use and other changes applied thereto in accordance with the provisions of this law and Implementing regulations.

Article ( 6 )
The right to a patent shall be granted to the inventor or to his successor in title.
If the invention is a result of joint efforts of several individuals, the ownership of the patent shall be equally assigned, unless otherwise multilaterally agreed upon.
The first person to file a patent application for a patent for the same invention, shall be considered as the first inventor .

Article ( 7 )
Where an invention is made in pursuance of an employment contract, the employer shall have all pecuniary rights to the invention. Employer shall also has all rights resulted in inventions made during and within an employment relation or within the nature of the institution in which the inventor works.
The name of the inventor shall be appeared in the Letters Patent and in all cases is paid for his invention otherwise he shall be entitled to have a fair compensation from the employer.
In all cases other than those mentioned above and where the invention fall within the nature of the institution in which the inventor works, the employer shall have the choice to exploit or buy the invention in return of fair compensation to be paid to the inventor provide that he must decide within three months from notifying of the grant of patent.
In all case, the invention shall be related to the inventor.

Article ( 8 )
A patent application filed by an employee inventor within one year following the termination of his services shall be regarded as having been filed during his employment and both of the inventor and employer shall have the rights stipulated in the previous article according to each case.

This period is increased to three years if the inventor established or joined a competitor and the invention was due to the direct result of his previous activity and experience in his previous institution.

Article ( 9 )
The term of a patent shall be twenty years from the application filing date in Egypt.

Article ( 10 )
The owner of a patent shall have the right to prevent third parties from exploiting his invention in any manner.
The owner’s right to prevent third parties from importing, using, selling or distributing the product is exhausted if he market the product in any country or authorized others to do that.
The following shall not be considered as a violation of the rights of the patentee :
1. Work related to scientific researches purposes.
2. Where a person has in good faith been manufacturing a product or using an invented process or has made serious measures therefore in Egypt before filing of the patent application made by other person in respect of same product or process, that person shall have the right, notwithstanding the grant of the patent , to continue such manufacture or use in relation to product so obtained without any expanding. Such right shall not be assigned or transferred with other elements of the business.
3. Indirect use of method of production subject of invention to obtain another products.
4. Use of the invention in of land, sea or air transport means belonging to any member State of WTO or according Egypt equal treatment in case of temporary or transit existence of any of these means in Egypt .
5. Where a person is manufacturing or assembling or using or selling a product during the period of protection in order to obtain marketing license provided that no marketing is made except after elapse of such period.
6. Any other actions made by third party provided that it does not represent unreasonable contradict with the normal use of patent and irrationally prejudice the legitimate interests of the patentee taking into consideration the legitimate interest of third parties.

Article ( 11 )
The patent shall be subject to filing fees and incrementally annual fees starting from the second year until the term is lapsed.
These fees shall be provided in the Implementing Regulations and shall not exceed two thousand pounds for filing and one thousand pounds for annuity.
The Implementing Regulations shall provide rules of discount or exemption .
The applicant shall also pay fees of experts appointed by the patent office and examination fees.

Article ( 12 )
Patent application shall be filed with the Patent Office in the name of the inventor or his assignee in accordance with the rules and conditions provided in the Implementing Regulations An application for a patent cannot cover more than one invention and if the invention consists of group of inventions of integrated inventive idea, it is considered as one invention.

Article ( 13 )
Patent application shall be accompanied by detailed description of the subject matter and best embodiments which enable experts to execute it for each claimed product and method.
Specification shall contain clear claims and shall be accompanied by drawings if necessary.
If the application is related to biological materials of plant or animal origin; or customer medical, agricultural, industrial or handicraft knowledge; or cultural or environmental heritage, the inventor should prove that it was legally obtained.
If the application is related to micro-organism, the applicant should disclose this organism and deposit culture thereof with the concerned authority stipulated in the Implementing Regulations.
Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 38 , in all cases, the applicant should submit complete data and information concerning previous applications filed abroad in respect of the same invention or any closely related subjects and result of examination of these applications.
Documents to be submitted with the application, due dates for filing same as well as terms of rejection shall be provided in the Implementing Regulation .

Article ( 14 )
The Patent Office may impose any restrictions or modifications which deem fit according to stipulation of Article (13) and as specified in the Implementing Regulations, if the applicant fails to comply within three months from the date of notification, he shall deemed to have renounced his application.
The applicant may appeal against this decision in front of the Committee stipulated in Article 36 of this Law within 30 days in accordance with the terms stipulated in the Implementing regulations.

Article ( 15 )
The applicant may, at any time before acceptance, submit an application to modify the specification of the invention or its drawing, while giving details of the nature of the amendment and reasons therefore, provided that such modification does not affect the essence of the invention. The same procedure concerning new application for a patent shall be followed in regard to this amendment.

Article ( 16 )
The Patent Office shall examine the application for a patent and its enclosures to ascertain that the invention is new, having inventive step and industrially applicable in accordance with articles 1, 2 and 3 of this law.
If said terms are fulfilled and provisions of articles 12 and 13 are applied, the patent office shall publish the acceptance of the said application in the Patent Journal as specified in the Implementing Regulations.
Any interested party may file a notice of opposition with the Patent Office stating grounds of opposition within 60 days from date of publication in the Patent Journal in accordance with terms stipulated in the Implementing Regulations.
The opposing party shall pay an opposition fees stipulated in the implementing Regulations which shall not be less than E.P. 100.00 and shall not exceed E.P. 1000.00 , this fees shall be refunded in case of acceptance of opposition.
The opposition shall be handled by the Committee stipulated in Article 36 of this Law accordance with the terms and conditions stipulated in the Implementing regulations.

Article ( 17 )
The Patent Office shall send copy of the patent application to Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Military Production , Ministry of Interior or Ministry of Heath according to the respective case, if the invention concerns defense affairs or Military Production or national security or has a military or security value, together with enclosures within 10 days from termination of examination and simultaneously notifying the applicant within seven days from the date of sending the application. The Minister of Defense, or Military Production , Interior or Health may object to the publication of acceptance of such application within 90 days from the date of notification.
The concerned Minister may file an opposition after publication of acceptance if it appeared that the application concerns defense affairs or Military Production or national security , or has a military or security , or health value. The opposition should be made within 90 days from the date of publication in the Patent Journal.
Any opposition presented in the above cases shall result in suspending the issuance of the Letters Patent.

Article ( 18 )
Funding instrument shall be established for balancing the prices of medicines ( not for export ) with a legal entity attached to the Ministry of Health for the purpose of health development and ensure that prices of medicines shall not be affected by different variants, This instrument shall be issued by Presidential Decree determining its resources of the said instrument including any accepted contributions from any donor country and international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

Article ( 19 )
Publication of acceptance of a patent application shall not be made except after one year from the filing date and is kept secret during this period.
The concerned Minister or his deputy shall issue the Letters Patent and the fact is published in the Patent Journal as specified in the Implementing Regulations.

Article ( 20 )
Any person may view the application and its documents and register after publication of acceptance and can obtain certified copy upon payment of fees prescribed in the Implementing Regulation and not exceeding one thousand pounds and in accordance with terms and conditions stipulated in the Implementing Regulations.

Article ( 21 )
Patent may be assigned partially or totally with or without consideration, it may also be pledged or licensed.
Without prejudice to the stipulations relative to the sale and mortgage of commercial enterprises, assignment, mortgage or license of a patent shall not be considered as valid against third party except after due annotation thereof in the patent register.
The publication of assignment, mortgage or license of a patent shall be made in accordance with terms and conditions stipulated in the Implementing Regulations.

Article ( 22 )
Creditors may effect an attachment on the patent of their debtors in accordance with rules of movable properties and the seizure of what is due to the debtor in the hands of third party. The Patent Office shall be exempted from the rules relative to obtaining a declaration from the person against whom a seizure is made before an attachment is effected against him.
The creditor shall notify the Patent Office of the attachment and the proces-verbal of adjudication in order to enter annotation therefore in the register. They shall not be taken as evidence against third party except from the date of this annotation.
The attachment shall be published as prescribed in the Implementing Regulations.

Article ( 23 )
The Patent Office shall grant a compulsory license after the approval of a Ministerial Committee formed by decree issued by the Prime Minister and the said committee shall determine the financial rights of the patentee upon issuance of the said Compulsory License in the following cases:
First: If the concerned Minister, according to specific case, found that exploitation of the invention is necessary for:
(1) Non commercial public utility purposes
Such as purposes of preserving national security, health, food and preservation of environment.
( 2 ) To face emergency or force major circumstances
Compulsory licenses is granted in respect of cases specified in items 1 and 2 without previous negotiation with the patentee or lapsing of long period of negotiation or offering reasonable licensing terms.
( 3 ) Supporting national efforts in the economically, socially and technically important sectors without prejudice to the reasonable rights of the patentee and taking into consideration the legitimate interests of third parties.
The patentee should be immediately notified of the granting of compulsory license in cases specified in items 1 and 3 , and as soon as possible in the cases specified in item 2 .
Second: Upon the request of the Minister of Health in case of any shortage of patented drugs to satisfy the country’s needs, or low quality thereof or unreasonably high prices thereof; or if the invention related to drug for the treatment of critical, chronic, endemic diseases, or products used for the protection from these diseases and whether the invention relates to drugs per se or process for producing same or essential raw materials used to produce same or process of preparing the raw materials used to produce same.
In all cases the patentee should immediately be notified of the compulsory license decision.
Third: If the Patentee refuse to give license for the exploitation of the invention – no matter what is the purpose of exploitation – in spite of offering suitable terms and lapsing of a reasonable negotiation period.
The applicant of the compulsory license should prove that he has made a serious efforts to obtain an optional license from the patentee.
Fourth If the patentee fail to exploit the patent either by himself or with his approval or the exploitation thereof was not sufficient after lapsing of 4 years from filing date or three years from date of grant which is longer, and if the exploitation of the patent has been suspended for over one year without reasonable justification.
Exploitation shall mean producing the claimed product in Egypt, or use of the claimed process in Egypt.
Nevertheless, if the patent office find out that in spite of lapsing of the two cited periods, non exploitation of the patent was due to legal, technical, or economical reasons beyond the control of the patentee, the patent office may grant him another sufficient term for exploiting the invention.
Fifth : If it is proved that the patentee has abuse or misuse his rights in an unfair competition way. The following are considered instances of this kind.:
( 1 ) Exaggeration in pricing patented products or discrimination between customers in respect of prices and selling terms,
( 2 ) Hiding patented products or offering for sale with unfair terms,
( 3 ) Stopping production of patented products or producing same in small quantities which does not proportionate with the production capacity and market needs,
( 4 ) Actions which negatively affect fair competition accordance with established legal rules.
( 5 ) Using the rights accorded by law in manner negatively affect transfer of technology.
In all these cases, compulsory license is granted without negotiation or lapsing of a reasonable negotiation period even though granting of compulsory license is not to fulfill local market requirements.
The Patent Office may refuse to terminate compulsory license if granting circumstances still prevail or likely to be repeated.
In estimating the compensation to be paid to the patentee, damages resulted in abuse of rights and actions of unfair competition should be taken into consideration.
The patent office may abandon the patent if it appeared after two years from the date of granting the compulsory license that such license is not enough to recover the negative impact of the patentee‘s abuse or actions of unfair competition on the national economy.
Any interested party may appeal against the abandonment decision in front of the Committee referred to in Article 36 of this law in accordance with the conditions specified in the Implementing regulations.
Sixth ::If Exploitation of the patent by the patentee can not be made except by using other invention, and has an advanced technical and economical importance comparing to the other invention, the patentee may have a compulsory license and the other patentee has equal rights.
Relinquishment to use the granted license of one patent may not be made without the other.
Seventh: In case of inventions related to semi-conductors, no compulsory license shall be issued except for Non commercial public utility purposes or to recover action proved to be unfair competition.
Granting of compulsory license according to this article shall be made as prescribed in the implementing Regulations.

Article ( 24 )
On granting a compulsory license, the following should be considered:
( 1 ) application requesting the grant of compulsory license should be decided in each case separately and aiming basically to satisfy local market’s needs.
( 2 ) The applicant of the compulsory license should prove that he has made a serious efforts within a reasonable period to obtain an optional license in return of fair compensation and failed.
( 3 ) the patentee shall has the right to appeal against the decision granting compulsory license in front of the Committee referred to in Article 36 of this law within 30 days from the date of notifying in accordance with the conditions prescribed in the Implementing regulations.
( 4 ) The applicant of the Compulsory License should be capable of seriously exploiting the invention in Egypt.
( 5 ) The licensee who obtained a compulsory license should be obliged to use the invention The licensee should use the invention within the scope, terms and period specified in the license decision.
If the term of the license expired without achieving the purpose thereof, the patent office may renew this term.
( 6 ) Use of compulsory license is restricted to the applicant, however, the patent office may grant compulsory license to others.
( 7 ) Compulsory License may not be assigned except with the business or the part of business in respect of which the invention is used.
( 8 ) The patentee shall be entitled to a fair compensation for exploiting his invention taking into consideration the economic value of the invention.
The patentee may appeal against the estimated compensation in front of the Committee referred to in Article 36 within 30 days from the date of notification according to rules prescribed in the Implementing Regulations.
( 9 ) Compulsory license shall be terminated at the end of the specified term, the patent office may, however, terminate the said license before the expiration date if the reasons of granting same have been eliminated and most likely will not be repeated , procedures of this termination is prescribed in the implementing regulations.
( 10 ) The patentee may request termination of the compulsory license before the expiration date if the reasons of granting same have been eliminated and most likely will not be repeated
( 11 ) Legal interests of the licensee should be considered upon termination of the compulsory license.
( 12 ) The patent office may ex officio or upon request of any interested party , amend terms of compulsory license or cancel same if the licensee fail to use it within two years from the date of grant or violate his obligations stipulated in the License.

Article ( 25 )
By virtue of a decision issued by the concerned Minister, after approval of the Ministerial Committee referred to in article 23 of this law, inventions may be expropriated for reasons relating to national security and other critical cases to which compulsory license is not sufficient to confront.
Expropriation can be restricted to the right of exploiting the invention to fulfill country needs.
In all cases, expropriating the patent shall be made against a fair compensation. The compensation shall be estimated by the Committee referred to in Article 36 and in accordance with the prevailed economical circumstances at the time of expropriation.
Expropriation decision is published in the patent journal. The patentee may appeal against the expropriation decision and decision of the Committee in front of the Administrative Court within 60 days from the date of notification by registered letter with acknowledgement receipt . The Court will deal with such case as an urgent matter.

Article ( 26 )
The rights accorded by patent of invention shall be terminated and fall in the public domain in the following cases:
1. Lapse of the protection period granted in accordance with article ( 9 ).
2. Cession thereof by the patentee without prejudice to rights of third party.
3. The issuance of a judgment for the annulment of a patent.
4. Failure to pay the due annual fees or due fine of 7% of the original fees within a one year from the due date and after sending a notice requesting payment in accordance with the rules specified in the Implementing regulations.
5. Non use of the invention in Egypt within two years following the grant of compulsory license in accordance with an application filed with the patent office by any interested party.
6. Abuse of the patentee in the cases where compulsory license is inadequate to remedy this abuse.
Termination of the rights according to this article shall be published in accordance with the Implementing regulations.

Article ( 27 )
Administrative Court shall be concerned with cases relating to decisions dealing with patents of invention.

Article ( 28 )
The Administrative Court may, upon request of the Patent Office or any interested party , issue a decision adding any statements that may have been omitted, to the register, or modification of any statement already entered therein if such has been untruthfully made or deletion of any statement which has been unlawfully entered.
The Patent Office or any interested party may also request annulations of a patent granted contrary to the stipulations of articles ( 2 ) and ( 3 ) of this law, the patent office shall cancel this patent upon receiving a judgment to this effect.

Article ( 29 )
Utility Model patent according to this law shall be granted to any new technical addition in the form, composition of means, utensils, or tools their components or products or preparations or methods of producing thereof and other objects used in the current art.
The applicant may convert his application to patent of invention application and the owner of patent application may convert it to utility patent application.
The filing date in both cases shall be the original filing date.
The patent office may ex officio, covert utility patent application to patent of invention application whenever the paten terms are applied.

Article ( 30 )
The period of protection of utility model patent is seven non renewable years starting from the filing date in Egypt .

Article ( 31 )
An official fees are due on filing utility model patent application. An annual incremental fees shall be paid as from the second year till the expiration of patent period.
The amount of these fees , rules of discount or exemption shall be specified in the Implementing Regulation and shall not exceed one thousand Egyptian Pounds for each application.

Article ( 32 )
Without prejudice to stipulation of article ( 10 ) of this law, the following shall be punished by a fine of not less than E.P. 20,000.00 and not exceeding E.P. 100,000.00
1 - Any person imitating the subject of an invention or utility model for which a patent has been granted in accordance with this law for commercial purposes.
2 - Any person knowingly selling or offering for sale or handling or importing from abroad or possessing with the intention of trading, imitated products or materials subject of valid patent of invention or utility model patent issued in Egypt.
3 - Any person unjustifiably quoting on products or advertisement or trade-marks or packing materials, etc, particulars which lead to the belief that he has obtained a patent of invention or Utility Model Patent
In case of recidivating, the recidivist shall be imprisoned for a period of not exceeding 2 years and a fine not less than E.P. 40,000.00 and not exceeding E.P. 200,000.00.
In all cases, the Court may order the confiscation of the imitated goods and tools used in imitation and the judgment is published in one or more daily newspapers at the expense of the party against which the judgment is given.

Article ( 33 ) :
The owner of a patent of invention or utility model may request from the president of the competent Court to issue an order to take preservative measures in respect of the goods or products claimed to be imitation of a patented product as per disclosure of the patent or utility model specification. The order shall specify the preservative measures necessary to preserve the goods and products in the original condition.
The order referred to herein above may be issued before the filing of legal case , and shall be null and void if the case is not filed within eight days from the date of issuance.

Article ( 34 )
Identical product shall be considered as obtained by the claimed process if the plaintiff proved the following in his civil action.
( 1 ) that this product has been obtained by the direct use of the claimed process.
( 2 ) that reasonable effort was exerted to discover the process used in production . In this case the court may order the defendant to prove that the method used in the production of the identical product is differs from the claimed method.
In deciding on proof procedures, the court shall consider the right of the defendant in protecting his industrial and commercial secrets.

Article ( 35 )
The President of the concerned Court may give, at the request of any interested party, an order to take one or more preservative measures for settlement of the ruled fines or compensations and may order destruction of the seized articles, if necessary.

Article ( 36 )
By virtue of a decision issued by the competent Minister , Committee shall be set up to decide in appeals filed against Decisions of the Patent Office according to stipulations of this law. This Committee shall be headed by Council of Court of Appeal or equal legal entity and member from the Advisory Section of the State Council and three experts.
The appeal shall be subject to official fees prescribed in the Implementing Regulations and not exceeding E.P.500.00.
Committee should decide in the appeal within 60 days from the date of filing same and the Committee's decision in this respect is final.
No legal proceedings concerning decisions of the patent office, other than cancellation action, shall be accepted except after deciding the appeal or after 60 days from filing without deciding.
Procedures of this committee shall be stipulated in the Implementing Regulations.

Article ( 37 )
The patent office and any concerned party shall have the right to appeal against decision rendered by the Committee stipulated in article ( 36 ) in front of the Administrative Court within 60 days from the date of notifying the office or the concerned party by registered letter with acknowledgement receipt and the court should decide in this appeal as an urgent matter.

Article ( 38 )
If a patent application is filed in WTO member state or any country according Egypt similar treatment, the applicant or his assignee may file a patent application in respect of the same subject matter in Egypt in accordance with terms and conditions laid down in this law and its Implementing Regulation within the following year .In this case priority date will be the date of the first foreign application.

Article ( 39 )
Officers of the patent office cannot apply directly or indirectly for a patent of invention except after lapsing of three years at least from the date of leaving the office.

Article ( 40 )
All provisions concerning patent of invention shall be applied on utility model patent unless otherwise specified.

Article ( 41 )
Provisions of this law shall be applied to each application filed with the patent office before enacting of this Law and no patent has been issued in respect thereof. The applicant may also amend his application accordingly.
Period of protection stipulated in this law shall be applied to all valid patents at the date of enacting this law and the term shall be extended according to the term indicated in article 9 of this law.

Article ( 42 )
Minister of Justice in agreement with the competent Minister shall issue a decision specifying the officials that shall have the capacity of judiciary officers to enforce provisions of this book.

Article ( 43)
The Patent Office shall receive any application relating to pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products , these applications together with applications related to similar products and filed as of 1st January 1995 shall be kept pending until the effective date of examination of starting on 1st January 2005 .
Protection of inventions relating to subject matters stipulated in the above clause shall commence from the date of grant and remains in force for the remaining period stipulated in article ( 9 ) of this law calculated from the date of filing.

Article ( 44 )
Subject to the date of examination of patent applications relating to products prescribed in Article 43 of this law, the applicant shall have the right to request the competent authority to grant him the Exclusive Marketing Rights in the Arab Republic of Egypt with the following conditions:
1 – The applicant did file a patent application covering this product in Egypt after 1st January, 1995,
2 – The applicant did obtained a patent in a WTO member state based on an application filed in this country after 1st Jan 1995,
3 – The applicant did obtain marketing approval to market this product in the country in which he has obtained a patent after 1st January, 1995.
4 – The applicant did obtain a marketing rights for this product from the Egyptian Authorities.
The Patent Office shall grant EMR in accordance after the approval of Ministerial Committee formed especially for this purpose by virtue of a decree issued by Prime Minister.
No EMR shall be granted if it appeared from the documents presented to the patent office to obtain EMR that the application filed has been published within one year prior to the date of filing.
The applicant shall enjoy the Exclusive Marketing Rights approved by the competent authorities until the patent office decide in the patent application or for 5 years from the date of grant whichever is less.
Exclusive marketing rights shall be canceled if the competent Ministry decided to cancel marketing of the product or if the owner abuses these rights.
 

Section ( 2 )
Layout-Design of Integrated Circuits

Article ( 45 )
In applying the provisions of this law, integrated circuit shall mean a product, in its final form or intermediate form, including elements, at least one of which is an active element, formed integrally on insulated material with some or all of the interconnections and which is intended to perform an electronic function.
layout-design means the three-dimensional disposition prepared for an integrated circuit intended for manufacture.

Article ( 46 )
A new layout-Design of Integrated Circuits shall be protected according to the provisions of this law.
A layout design shall be considered new whenever it is the result of creators’ own intellectual effort and is not a commonplace among manufacturers of integrated circuits.
A layout-design shall also considered new if interconnections of its elements are new although the elements consisting same are commonplace among manufacturers of integrated circuits.

Article ( 47 )
Any concept, method, technical system or coded information included in the layout – design of the integrated circuits shall not enjoy protection.

Article ( 48 )
Period of protection of the layout-design of the integrated circuit shall be ten years from the date of filing the application for registration in Egypt or from the date of the first commercial use in Egypt or abroad which is prior to the other.
The period of protection of layout-design shall be lapsed , in all cases, after 15 years from the date of setting the design.

Article ( 49 )
An application for registration of the layout-design can be filed by the creator with the patent office . The application should be accompanied by photo or drawings of the said design and sample of each commercially exploited integrated circuit, along with information explaining the electronic function of the design.
The applicant may exclude one or more parts of the design provided that the parts submitted are sufficient to allow the identification of the layout-design and function thereof.
The Patent Office shall provide a special register in which applications shall be entered in accordance with the terms and conditions specified in the Implementing Regulations. The application shall be subject to filing fees determined in the Implementing Regulations and not exceeding E.P. 1000.00.
No application shall be accepted if it is filed after two years from the date of first commercial exploitation of the design by the creator whether in Egypt or abroad.

Article ( 50 )
The following acts can not be performed by any natural or juridical person without a previous written authorization from the creator:
1 - Reproducing the design totally or partially whether by incorporation in an integrated circuit or by any other mean.
2 - Importing, selling or distributing for commercial purposes a layout-design whether separately or by incorporation in an integrated circuit or as a component of a product.

Article ( 51 )
Without prejudice to the protection provisions stipulated in this law, any natural or juridical person can perform the following acts without authorization from the creator:
Reproduction or commercial exploitation including importing, selling or otherwise distributing for commercial purposes an integrated circuit comprising protected layout-design or a product incorporating this integrated circuit, if the person performing such act do not know and had no reasonable ground to know, when acquiring the said integrated circuit or product incorporating the said integrated circuit that it incorporates protected layout-design.
In this case, the holder of the product may , upon payment of fair compensation to the owner , dispose of stored or ordered products after receiving a notice from the holder of the right by registered letter with acknowledgement receipt notifying him that the integrated circuit or product in his possession incorporating a protected layout-design.
1. personal use of protected layout-design or use for the purpose of testing, checking, analysis, teaching, training or scientific research. If such use resulted in creation of a new layout-design, creator shall have the right to protect it.
2. Creation of new original layout-design identical to protected layout-design as a result of independent efforts.
3. Importing protected layout design or integrated circuit incorporating this design per se whether it is a separate circuit or incorporated in a product or the product containing the integrated circuit that includes a protected layout design whenever it was circulated in Egypt or abroad.

Article ( 52 )
The patent Office may grant a compulsory license to use layout-design in accordance with the provisions of articles (23) and (24) of this law concerning Compulsory licensing of patent of invention.

Article ( 53 )
Shall be punished by a fine of not less than E.P. 20,000.00 and not exceeding E.P. 100,000. anyone violate the provisions of Article ( 50) of this law.
In case of recidivating, the recidivist shall be imprisoned for a period of not exceeding 2 years and a fine not less than E.P. 40,000.00 and not exceeding E.P. 200,000.00 .

Article (54)
Provisions of Articles ( 4 ) , ( 33 ), ( 35 ) and ( 42 ) shall be applied to this section.

Section ( 3 )
Undisclosed Information

Article ( 55 )
Undisclosed Information shall be protected in accordance with provisions of this law provided that :
1. It is a Secret information, .in the sense that it is not, as a body or in the precise configuration and assembly of its components, generally known among persons within the circles that normally deal with the kind of information in question.
2. The commercial value of the information because it is secret
3. Information that has been subject to effective steps, by the person lawfully in control of it, to keep it secret.

Article ( 56 )
Protection afforded by this law shall extend to undisclosed information, the origin of which involves a considerable effort, submitted to the competent authority as a condition to obtain marketing approval of pharmaceutical or of agricultural chemical products which utilize new chemical entities since it is necessary for the tests required to be made before granting marketing rights.
The competent authorities receiving these information shall protect such data against disclosure and against unfair commercial use as from the date of receiving these information and until it becomes not secret or for a period not exceeding five years whichever is less.
Disclosing of such information where necessary to protect the public shall not be considered as encroachment on the owner’s right.

Article ( 57 )
The legal entity who has the Information lawfully within his control should take the necessary measures to keep the information secret and prohibit disclosing to unauthorized parties.
He shall also organize handling of the information within the enterprise and restrict it to those that are legally bound to preserve it and prevent leakage of same to third party.
The legal possessors shall be responsible if such information disclosed to third party unless he proved that he has made sufficiently reasonable effort to preserve it.
The information shall be considered secret and consequently not accessible to third party so far as it is undisclosed information according to provisions of article 55 of this law.
The right of the legal possessor of undisclosed information is restricted to the right of prohibit third party from committing any action contrary to the fair trade as prescribed in article ( 58 ) of this law. The owner of the undisclosed information may refer the subject to the court if it is proved that these actions were committed by any third party.

Article ( 58 )
The following acts are considered as an acts of unfair competition and contradict to the fair trade , in particular :
( 1 ) offering a bribe to persons working with the authority acquiring the information in order to illegally obtain the said information.
( 2 ) Inducing workers to release information if this information has come to their knowledge due to their employment.
( 3 ) If one contractor of “Secrecy agreement “ released the information he has in his possession.
( 4 ) Obtaining the information from the archiving system by any illegal mean such as stealing or spying etc.
( 5 ) Obtaining information by any fraud means.
( 6 ) Use of information by person who received this information by any act of the above acts knowingly that this is undisclosed information.
Any consequences of the acts mentioned above including releasing of information, acquiring same, use of information by unlicensed party shall be considered as encroachment on the rights of the owner of undisclosed information..

Article ( 59 )
The following acts shall not be considered as an acts contradict to the fair trade, namely :
( 1 ) Obtaining information from general available sources such as libraries including , the library of the patent office, the public governmental records, researches and studies and published reports.
( 2 ) Obtaining information by personal and independent efforts devoted for extracting information through checking, testing, analysis of goods available in the market in which the undisclosed information is embodied.
( 3 ) Obtaining information as a result of scientific research, innovations, inventions, development, amendment, improvement exerted by persons independently from the owner of undisclosed information.
( 4 ) acquiring and using of known available information normally handled between skilled in the art.

Article ( 60 )
The owner of undisclosed information or his assignee may assign his rights with or without consideration.

Article ( 61 )
Without prejudice to any other stricter penalty stipulated in any other law, any person illegally disclose, acquire or use an undisclosed information protected in accordance with this law, knowingly of their secrecy, shall be punished by a fine of not less than E.P.10,000.00 and not exceeding E.P.50,000.00.
In case of recidivating shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 2 years and a fine not less than E.P.50,000.00 and not exceeding E.P.100,000.00.

Article ( 62 )
The provisions of articles 4, 33, 35, 42 shall be applied to this section.