Syriani - ip News - Circular-3

Circular 3

According to recent government instructions, official approval of new powers of attorney is now taking a lengthy period of time. Prior to these instructions, the process of sworn translation, official approval and final legalization used to take 1 to 1.5 months. Now the doc has also to be approved by State Security (another 10 – 15 days) before final legalization by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and retention by Notary Public. Therefore, powers of attorney have to be ready at time of receipt of instructions or within a reasonable time.

Time allowed for filing a certified copy of the-would-be-held power of attorney by Notary Public (subject to a monthly penalty for late filing) is:

3 months for patents and opposition to provisional refusals of IRs.

6 months from filing date for new and renewal applications of trademarks or designs.

We are not to be held liable or subjected to litigation for any delayed approval whatsoever.

So far, we have not charged many of our clients for obtaining approval of Ministry of Interior for legalization of the power of attorney. However, we are now obliged to set a charge for the two approvals of new powers of attorney.