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Extension States and Validation States

Granted EP patents may gain protection in specified countries that are no member states of the European Patent Convention (EPC). These countries recognize the grant of the EP patent without separate substantive examination by their national Patent Office.

Basically, applicant’s selection of countries and the required corresponding fee payment must be made within the same deadline applying to the designation fee payment for EPC member states. After expiry of this period, the fee(s) may still be paid with a surcharge of 50% within a grace period of 2 months in order to effectively designate extension/validation states.

Following countries are available for EP patents, provided that their basic application date, i.e.:

  • for EP direct: the application date of the present application
  • for Divisions: the application date of the basic parental application
  • for PCT-EP: the application date of the international application

lies on or after the date of coming into force with the relevant country:

Extension states (European states)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA) in force since 01.12.2004

Validation states (non-European states)
Morocco (MA) in force since 01.03.2015
Republic of Moldova (MD) in force since 01.11.2015
Tunisia (TN) in force since 01.12.2017
Cambodia (KH) in force since 01.03.2018.

Further information on extension and validation states can be found at:
» https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/extension-validation-system.html.

Legal information:
this brief information cannot replace examination/consultation of a patent attorney in the specific case. We do not accept any liability on the basis of this merely general information. Please contact us with any general questions or in specific cases.

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