A petty patent is an intellectual property right that protects an invention for a period of 10 years.

An invention that can be protected by a petty patent is a product, while by a petty patent can not be protected following categories of inventions relating to:

1) inventions in the field of biotechnology,
2) substances,
3) medicines,
4) substances or compositions referred to in Article 10, para. 3 and 4 of the Law on Patents,
5) plant varieties or animal breeds and
6) a procedure that can be protected by a patent.

A petty patent granted by the Intellectual Property Office produces legal effect only on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

After the registration of petty patent, it is necessary to pay annual fees for the maintenance of right starting from the 3rd year to keep the petty patent valid.

Petty patent is a right that has not been examined. That means that the Office shall not, in the framework of the procedure for the grant of petty patent, conduct the procedure of the examination of the conditions of patentability, i.e. it shall not check whether the invention is novel, if it has an inventive step and weather if it is industrially applicable. Because of that, the protection procedure by petty patent is much faster and cheaper. The holder of petty patent can prevent others to use the protected invention only if he has certificate on examination, i.e. if the Office conducts examination procedure with state of the art search and the substantive examination of the granted petty patent. That implies that, in order for the right obtained by petty patent to be enforced in court, it is necessary to have proof that it is indeed technical solution that that fulfils conditions of novelty, inventive step and is industrial applicability. The holder of right initiates the examination procedure of the granted petty patent by filing request for the elaboration of the state of the art and request for the substantial examination. If in the substantive examination of the petty patent it is established that the invention does not fulfill some of the prescribed conditions, the Office shall declare it null and void ex officio. If there is such a possibility, the granted petty patent can stay valid in the changed form. In the case when all conditions are fulfilled, the Office issues a certificate on the examination and the right acquired by petty patent shall continue to be valid, and the holder of petty patent shall be able to undertake all the enforcement measures for the protection of his right. More about the enforcement of intellectual property right can be seen here.