The state of Israel has a unique patent system, which is, in several aspects, significantly different that most of the patent systems in the world.

Israel is a member of the Paris convention and the Patent cooperation treaty. The final deadline for filing a national phase patent application in Israel is 30 months from the priority date. The standard for receiving late applications is “due care”.

A patent application will normally wait in queue for about 3-5 years, but these time period recently improve, as the Israeli patent office recruited many new examiners. In addition patent applications can be accelerated if there is a suspicion of infringement or actual infringement. Recently, a new acceleration system has been introduced, and now “green” inventions can also be accelerated, without a specific reason or official fee.

The Israeli patent process is especially unique thanks to an “examination waiver” system, which allows waiving examination in cases of a positive PCT search or examination report, or an allowed or granted patent in a list of countries published by the commissioner. This system allows, in many cases, for an applicant for a patent in Israel, to enjoy a granted patent without substantive examination.

Israel does not allow patent for therapeutic treatment of the human body or business methods, and is yet to have a clear policy on software and patents

Patent applications in Israel are published for a 3 months opposition period. Only after the opposition period the patents are registered in the official journal.