Protecting Intellectual Property in Israel for Foreign Firms

A European homeware brand discovered its signature product on Israeli shelves under a different name, made by a company it had never heard of. The founders assumed their EU trademark and their registered Community design would settle the matter in a letter. They settled nothing. Neither right existed in Israel, the local company had registered a similar mark first, and what should have been a cease-and-desist became a negotiation to buy back a position the brand thought it already owned.

Intellectual property does not travel. A right granted in London, New York, or Brussels stops at Israel's border, and inside Israel only an Israeli-registered right, or an international right that reaches Israel, will hold. For a foreign business selling into Israel, licensing technology there, or building an R&D presence, the protection has to be arranged deliberately and early. The good news is that a foreign company can do all of it without ever incorporating locally.

Your Home Registration Stops at the Border

The principle behind the homeware story is territoriality, and it governs every category of IP. Israel runs its own registers, administered by the Israel Patent Office (Rashut HaPatentim), which houses the Registrar of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks under one roof. Whatever you hold abroad, the question an Israeli court asks is what you hold in Israel.

That does not mean starting from nothing. Israel is a member of the Paris Convention, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Madrid Protocol for trademarks, and the Hague system for designs, so your foreign filings can serve as the springboard. But the springboard only works if you use it inside the deadlines, and those deadlines are short.

If you are also setting up operations, IP registration sits alongside the other steps in establishing a business presence in Israel, but it is independent of them. You can own Israeli IP with no Israeli company at all.

Registering a Trademark in Israel

Trademarks are where foreign businesses get caught most often, because Israel, like most countries, registers on a first-to-file basis. The company that files first generally wins, regardless of who used the mark abroad. Brand squatting on foreign names is a known problem, and the defence is simply to file before you launch.

You have two routes. File directly at the Israel Patent Office, or extend an existing home registration into Israel through the Madrid Protocol, which Israel joined in 2010. The direct route is often cleaner for a single market and gives you an Israeli agent from day one.

In Practice: Under Section 31 of the Trademarks Ordinance [New Version] 1972, an Israeli trademark registration runs for 10 years from the filing date and renews in ten-year cycles indefinitely. Filing costs NIS 1,858 for a single class and NIS 1,397 for each additional class (2025 tariff) at the Israel Patent Office, first examination usually follows around five to seven months later, and a mark that clears examination is published for a three-month opposition period before registering, for a total of roughly 18 to 30 months. Where an infringement is already live, accelerated examination for an extra fee of about NIS 872 can compress the first stage to a matter of weeks.

Keep using the mark, too. A registration that sits idle can be cancelled for non-use, a real risk for a foreign owner who registers defensively and then delays entering the Israeli market.

Patents and the Route Through the ILPO

Patents in Israel run under the Patents Law 1967. You can file a national application directly, or enter the Israeli national phase of a PCT application, which is how most foreign applicants arrive. The ILPO itself acts as an international searching authority, so many applicants already know it.

Examination is substantive and can run to a few years, though the Patent Prosecution Highway and expedited-examination tracks shorten it where a corresponding patent has already been allowed elsewhere.

In Practice: Under Section 52 of the Patents Law 1967, an Israeli patent lasts 20 years from the filing date, subject to escalating renewal fees across its life, and the Israel Patent Office charges NIS 2,344 to file the application, reduced to NIS 1,406 for a qualifying small entity or individual (2025 tariff). The hard deadline sits earlier, though: the Paris Convention gives you 12 months from your first foreign patent filing to file in Israel while keeping that original priority date. Miss the 12-month window and you lose priority, and any disclosure of the invention in the meantime can defeat the Israeli application entirely, because Israel requires novelty.

Registered Designs After the 2017 Overhaul

The look of a product, its shape, pattern, or ornamentation, is protected as a registered design. Israel replaced its century-old 1924 ordinance with the Designs Law 2017, which modernised the field and, importantly for foreign filers, extended the maximum protection term for a registered design from 15 to 25 years, renewed in five-year blocks.

The 2017 law also introduced something new: a short unregistered design right, lasting three years from first publication, which gives limited automatic cover before a registration comes through. It is a safety net, not a substitute; the registered right is far stronger. Israel has also joined the Hague system, so a single international design application can now designate Israel alongside other markets.

In Practice: Under the Designs Law 2017, the Israel Patent Office filing fee for a registered design is modest, around NIS 460 for a single design, but the Paris Convention priority window is only 6 months from your first foreign design filing, half the patent period. A foreign brand that launches a product abroad and waits a year to protect it in Israel has usually lost both the priority claim and, because the design is now public, the novelty the Israeli registration depends on.

Copyright, Which Needs No Registration

Copyright is the outlier. Under the Copyright Act 2007, protection arises automatically the moment a qualifying work is created, whether software, text, graphics, or music, with no register, no filing, and no fee. Protection generally runs for the life of the author plus 70 years.

For a foreign business this is mostly reassuring, but two practical points follow. First, because there is no registration, proving ownership and date of creation falls on you, so keep your development records. Second, copyright protects expression, not function or branding, so it will not cover the things trademarks, patents, and designs exist for. Do not let the automatic nature of copyright lull you into skipping the registrations that are not automatic.

Filing and Enforcing from Abroad

A foreign company handles all of this at a distance, and the system is built to allow it. Filing requires a licensed Israeli patent attorney or trademark agent who supplies an address for service in Israel, and the rights are registered in your name, not the agent's. Powers of attorney for trademarks and designs generally do not even need notarization or legalization, which removes one of the usual cross-border frictions.

Enforcement is where distance bites, and where planning pays off. Israeli IP disputes are heard in the District Courts, which can grant injunctions, order the seizure of infringing goods, and award damages. Against counterfeit imports, you can also record your registered rights with Israeli Customs so that suspect shipments are stopped at the port before they reach the market, a faster and cheaper first line than litigation.

If your Israeli activity includes R&D or manufacturing, protecting the underlying IP also interacts with the incentive regime, since the Israel Innovation Authority grants and preferred-enterprise benefits often turn on where the intellectual property is owned and developed. Getting the ownership structure right at registration saves an expensive restructuring later.

The Mistake That Costs the Most

Common Mistake: Foreign businesses treat Israel as an afterthought, filing at home, launching globally, and getting to Israel a year or more later, long after the Paris Convention priority windows of 12 months for patents and 6 months for designs and trademarks have closed. By then the product is public and a local party may have registered a similar mark. Recovering the position means either an opposition or cancellation action before the Registrar, which runs 12 to 24 months and tens of thousands of shekels in legal fees, or simply buying the mark back from whoever filed first. Filing in Israel within the priority window, before launch, would have cost a fraction of either.

Practical Checklist

• Treat Israel as a separate jurisdiction, because your home IP rights do not extend there
• Diarise the Paris Convention deadlines now: 12 months for patents, 6 months for trademarks and designs
• File trademarks before you launch in Israel, given the first-to-file rule and brand squatting
• Appoint a licensed Israeli patent attorney or trademark agent to provide an address for service
• Decide between direct national filings and the Madrid or Hague international routes for your footprint
• Keep dated development records to evidence copyright and inventorship
• Record registered rights with Israeli Customs to block counterfeit imports at the port
• Align IP ownership with any Innovation Authority grant or tax-incentive plans before registering

Speak With an Israeli Attorney

Israeli IP protection rewards businesses that move early and punishes those that wait, and the priority deadlines are unforgiving once a product is public. An Israeli attorney can file your trademarks, patents, and designs within the windows that preserve your foreign filing dates, structure ownership to fit any incentive or licensing plans, and enforce your rights against infringers and counterfeit imports without you needing an Israeli company or a trip to Israel.

Contact us for a confidential initial consultation.