In July 2025 we explained to a foreign colleague that the amended Law on Patents and Industrial Designs, dated 26 April 2004, changed Article 41, which governs the duration of protection for industrial designs. The protection period was extended from seven years to ten years.
Two more points from the same explanation:
Annual fees are still calculated from the date of approval of the industrial design, not from the filing date. The exact date of the annual payment is stated in the approval letter.
If the annual fees are not paid for three consecutive years, the industrial design is cancelled. In effect, the owner has a three-year window to pay accumulated annual fees, but that is a safety net, not a docketing strategy.
Docketing checklist for designs in Iraq:
- Work from the amended law: ten years, not seven
- Count annuities from the approval date, not the filing date
- Flag any design with an unpaid year immediately
- Never let unpaid annuities approach three consecutive years
Filing or maintaining an industrial design in Iraq? Our team can check your annuity deadlines against the approval date.