Qatar has become a member of PCT on August 11, 2011. 

The Qatar Patent Office has started accepting PCT national phase applications as of September 2012.

The official fees of national phase applications are the same fees of regular applications. The documents required at the time of filing are the patent text in English and Arabic in addition to the details of the PCT application.

The legalized Power of Attorney must be submitted within (3) three months from the application filing date with late filing fees.

Patents shall be available for all inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology, provided that they are new, involved an inventive step, and are capable of industrial application. 

The patent subject may be in form of material products, an industrial process or a manufacturing technique.

• Subject to the law hereby, patentability shall not include:

a) Scientific theories, mathematical methods, computer programs, exercise of pure intellectual property activities, or practice of a specific game;

b) Plants and animals, and essential biological processes for the production of plants or animals other than microbiological processes;

c) Diagnostics, therapeutic and surgical methods for the treatment of human or animals. 

All patent applications filed at the Qatar Patent Office are subject to substantive examination and are bound to meet the above mentioned patentability criteria for receiving acceptance by the Patent Office.

The administration shall notify the applicant should the application be rejected and the applicant may file a petition to the competent committee within a period of 90 days as of the date of notification.

Any interested party may file an objection thereon to the competent committee within a period of 60 days from the date of publication. The letters patent or the utility certificate shall be issued to the applicant if no objection has been filed during the specified period.

According to the Qatar Patent Law, annual maintenance fees are due on the anniversary of the International filing date for the national phase of PCT applications and on the anniversary of the national filing date for non-PCT applications (including both priority and non-priority applications). 

A patent is valid for 20 years starting from the Qatar filing date, (in case of PCT, starting from the PCT filing date). The term of protection is non-extendable.