2. Patentability Criteria:
An invention is patentable if it:

• it is new
• it involves an inventive step
• it is industrially applicable

Non-Patentable Subject Matter:

• Discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
• Schemes, rules or methods for doing business, performing purely mental acts or playing games;
• Methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy, as well as diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body; this provision shall not apply to products for use in any of those methods;
• Pharmaceutical products as provided in Article 136 of the Cambodian Law;
• Plants and animals other than micro-organisms, and essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals;
• Plants varieties.

3. Utility Innovations:
The Cambodian patent system also provides for the grant of utility model certificates. A utility model must fulfill the criteria of novelty and industrial applicability (but not inventiveness). A utility model certificate shall expire, without any possibility of renewal, at the end of the seventh (7th) year after the date of the filing of the application.

4. Membership:
√ – Paris Convention
X – PCT

Cambodia is a member of the Paris Convention from 1998, whereby applications from convention countries will be subject to the same priority date in Cambodia. The application for priority has to be made within six months of the first application in a convention country.

5. Rule of Priority:
“First to file�? is the rule followed by Cambodia in determining priority of patents.

6. Duration:
The duration of protection is 20 years from the official filing date in Cambodia. The annual fee has to be paid each year in order to maintain the patent.

Once complete documentation has been submitted, the process of registration can usually be accomplished approximately one year to two years in average.