Israel Patent Opposition - Notice of Opposition and Evidence

The Israeli Patent Regulations define the procedure of filing an opposition for a patent in Israel.
Oppositions in Israel are filed after allowance and before grant of the patent. The formal document filed is a notice of opposition, which is filed together with payment of the appropriate fee.
One month after serving a notice of opposition, the opposer should submit his arguments to the Israeli Patent commissioner, in which he will specify his grounds for opposition, the facts on which he is arguing, and the requested remedy. He is also allowed to submit his evidence together with his arguments, but does not have to do so. If the opposer does not wish to file evidence, he will note that fact in his arguments.
3 months after being served the arguments, the applicant must submit his arguments in reply. If evidence were enclosed to the arguments of opposition, evidence should also be submitted at that time by the applicant. If the applicant chooses not to submit evidence, he is deemed to have admitted the applicant's arguments.
In a case that the opposer did not submit his evidence together with the arguments, he is now required to submit them within 3 months. Otherwise, he is deemed to have admitted the applicant's arguments. Then, the applicant should submit his evidence, within another 3 months. At this point, the opposer is given another 3 months to submit evidence in response and after that final submittal, no more evidence are submitted unless permission by the commissioner is granted.
It should be noted that documents should be submitted in or translated to an official language in Israel.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Zeev Fisher, Advocate, Partner, Appelfeld Zer Fisher
Zeev Fisher is in charge of the international department of AZF, and is in charge of handling the IP portfolios of all AZF's international clients.