– Patents, Designs and Industrial Models Law No. 8 of 1959.
– Executive Regulations of November 25, 1959.
– Law No. 40/1976 of May 4, 1976.

– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act, since September 28, 1976.
– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since September 28, 1976.
– Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), since September 15, 2005.

Applicant: the inventor or an assignee.

Foreigners and nationals not living in the country: must appoint a Libyan agent.

Kinds of patents: patents and patents of addition.

Novelty: prior patenting, prior claiming or prior publication in Libya during the fifty-year period preceding application, destroys novelty.

Examination: as to form only. If accepted, the application is published in the Official Gazette and is laid open to public inspection.

Opposition: within three months of publication.

Grant of the patent is published in the Official Gazette.

Exceptions to protection: (1) contrary to public order or morality; (2) inventions relating to foodstuffs, medicines or pharmaceutical preparations (except processes for making these products).

Beginning of protection: from the date of the application.

Duration – extension: fifteen years; extension to twenty years is possible when the invention is of special importance and the patentee is inadequately remunerated. For patents in respect of chemical processes relating to foodstuffs, medicines and pharmaceutical preparations: ten years; no extension is possible.

Annuities: are to be paid after the publication in the Official Gazette.

Validation of invalidated patent: not possible.

Marking of patented goods: not compulsory.

Working: a patent must be worked in Libya or in the country of origin within three years of the date of grant. A further extension of two years may be obtained.

Compulsory licenses: possible for reasons relating to public interest or national defense.

Assignment: must be recorded; no tax.

Right of prior user: a person who, in good faith, industrially worked the same invention in Libya at the date of the filing of an application or who has carried out the necessary work for its exploitation, maintains a right of prior use.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. Power of attorney, legalized by a Consulate of Libya in the applicant’s home country or by any other Consulate of an Arab State in the absence of the Libyan Consulate in the applicant’s home country and authenticated by the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
2. An extract from the applicant’s Home Commercial Register, or an official extract of the deed of establishment or Certificate of Incorporation, or a copy of the articles of association, if the applicant is a company or a corporate body, legalized and authenticated as above;
3. Drawings, in triplicate: 1 on tracing linen, 2 on Bristol board, 33 cm in length and from 20 to 22 cm or from 40 to 42 cm in width. Reference letters, numerals, name of applicant, number of the sheet and total number of sheets in Arabic characters;
4. A specification in triplicate, in Arabic;
5. Assignment of invention where applicable, legalized as above;
6. Certified copy of the priority document;
7. Certified Certificate of Employment if the inventor is an employee in the applicant’s company.

Note: all documents, with the exception of the priority document, which may be filed within three months from the filing date, must be submitted when filing the application. They must be in Arabic language or accompanied by a legalized Arabic translation, certified by a local translator and then authenticated by the Judicial Authorities Center (JAC).

Electronic filing: not available. 

Electronic signatures: are not accepted (only wet signatures).

PCT applications: are now accepted by the Patent Office (since the end of 2007). Time limit for entering national phase under both chapters I and II: 30 months.