– Law No. 17.164 of September 2, 1999 on Invention Patents, Utility Models and Industrial Designs.
– Regulations under the Patent Law, Decree No. 11/000 of January 13, 2000.
– Law No. 16.671 of December 29, 1994 approving the GATT Agreement on TRIPS. As a least-developed country, Uruguay has a period of ten years to adequate its legislation to the TRIPS Agreement.

– Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), since December 21, 1979.
– Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, Stockholm Act.
– Montevideo Convention, 1889.
– Buenos Aires Convention, 1910.
– Bilateral Treaty with Brazil, 1955.
– WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, since January 1, 1995.
– Protocol of Harmonization of Rules about Intellectual Property in the Mercosur (Southern Free Trade Agreement).
– Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification, 1971, since October 19, 2000.
– The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (Apostille), since October 14, 2012.

Applicant: the inventor, physical person or legal entity (foreigners or nationals).

Foreigners and nationals not living in the country: must appoint a local representative.

Rights granted to foreigners: same as for nationals.

Naming of inventor(s): the inventor must be named.

Novelty: the invention must be unknown. Patent Law 17.164 Art. 9 states the following: "the invention is deemed novel when it is not within the state of the art; Art. 10: Novelty shall not be affected by the disclosure of the invention made within the term of one year before the filing date of the application or the invoked priority, providing said disclosure comes directly or indirectly form actions performed by the inventor as well as by his/her heirs or by third parties, based on information obtained directly or indirectly from said inventor".

Patentable: any inventions, whether products or processes, provided they are new, involve and inventive step and are capable of industrial application.

Non-patentable: any invention lacking novelty or those contrary to public order; socially accepted manners, public health, population nutrition, security and environment. Diagnosis, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of persons or animals. Discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods. Plants and animals, with the exception of microorganisms as well as essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals, with the exception of non-biological or microbiological processes. Schedules, plans, rules of games as well as commercial, accounting, financial, educational, advertising, drawing and supervision principles or methods. Literary or artistic works or any other aesthetic creation as well as scientific works. Computing programs considered as isolated items. Different manners of reproducing information. Biological and genetic material, as found in nature.

Types of patents: invention patents, utility models, industrial designs, and divisional patents in case of more than one invention in the same application. 

Chemical and pharmaceutical products and/or compositions: are patentable since November 1, 2001.

Priorities: one or more partial priorities may be claimed at the time of filing the application.

Territory covered: the Republic of Uruguay.

Filing requirements for an application (to be sent to resident agent):
1. Power of attorney (no notarial certification or consular legalization is necessary);
2. Specification, drawings, claims and a summary of no more than 100 words;
3. If priority is claimed, the applicant must submit, within a term of 180 days, the original priority document issued by the Trademark Office where it was first filed, together with the translation or certification of a translation already done, by a sworn Uruguayan translator.

Note: only one power of attorney is required for any number of cases in the name of the same applicant.

Electronic filing: available. 

Electronic signatures: are not accepted (only wet signatures). Scanned copies of signed documents are accepted and the subsequent submission of the original is not required.

For a change of name or address:
1. Power of attorney, simply signed, and a scanned copy is sufficient.

Amendment of application: cannot be modified, except to: (a) correct errors in the personal data, in the text or in the graphic expression; (b) clarify, specify, limit or restrict its purpose; and (c) if this is deemed pertinent by the technicians in charge of the examination. Claims may be modified if are supported in the description. 

Extension of the scope of protection: not possible.

Interference: no provision.

Process claims: accepted. Also note as patentable: (a) production processes even if they are known per se, if the final product is unknown. However, it is required that reasonable limits are established as to pressures, temperatures, ratios, etc. in the practice of the process; (b) chemical mixtures (compositions, not compounds) if the effects obtained by their use are new and different from the simple addition of the effects of the individual products (e.g. synergistic activity). In this case it is also required to establish the exact ratio of the mixture.

Prior user: has valid rights for opposition. In Convention cases use should be previous to priority date.

Disputes about ownership: through opposition and cancellation actions. First applicant is considered the inventor unless otherwise proved.

Disputes about novelty: only through opposition and cancellation actions.

Examination: as to form, novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability. Examination is carried out by Examiners of the patent section of the Dirección Nacional de la Propiedad Industrial. The notion of novelty is absolute.

Division: possible; must take place before granting.

Application kept secret: not possible. In practice, it is possible to withhold publication to 180 days after filing date of the priority. This term is the only possible one for secrecy.

Opposition to patent application: possible; may be filed within a peremptory term of sixty days as from the publication of the application in the Industrial Property Bulletin.

Opposition procedure: opposition brief must state reason for unpatentability. If such proof is not included, the reason should be given. Later filing of evidence is then mandatory.

Official actions: in case of unfavorable report and/or opposition, application may only be granted after at least one or two official actions to clear the objections. File may be sent to the Ministry of Industry and Energy for final decision.

Publication: notice of application must be published in the Industrial Property Bulletin.

Granting: usually occurs about eight years after filing date, providing application has not received oppositions or unfavorable official actions. The certificate of registration is issued in digital format.

Duration: twenty years counted from the filing date.

Annuities: are due annually after the patent is granted. The due date is the anniversary of the filing application date and should be paid within sixty days before the due date; there is a grace period of six months but the fees increase by 50%.

Marking: not compulsory.

Amendment of granted patents: not possible.

Assignment and conventional licenses: possible at any time; must be registered before the Patent Office so that is has effect against third parties.

License for exploitation: must be registered by filing a certified and legalized copy of the contract.

Working: the invention must be worked within three years from the granting date or four from the request (whichever is longer). An extension may be obtained proving force majeure reasons for non-working.

Nominal working: is not considered enough, and imports are not accepted as working. If the owner of a non-worked patent refuses to authorize working thereof to an interested party, or fixes a very high compensation therefor, the third party may obtain a compulsory license by paying the owner a compensation which, in such case, will be fixed at his request by the Patent Office, through a commission appointed to this effect. No possibility of appeal against this commission’s decision.

Rights of prior user: a cancellation action should be filed.

Opposition to granted patents: not possible.

Compulsory licenses: can be granted, depending of special situations.

Expropriation: may be made by the State with proper compensation, but only if patent has been considered to be of public usefulness. Expropriation may be limited to working rights for the State within its needs.

Annulment: a patent may only be cancelled on the grounds of lack of novelty or unpatentability. Procedure requires filing of evidence.

Validation of invalidated patents: not possible.

Infringement: through judicial action only. Infringers may be fined and/or imprisoned and infringing goods expropriated. Owner may require reimbursement of damages from infringers.