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Thursday, September 23, 2004

Malta, Iceland and Lithuania soon to acceed to the European Patent Convention.

The

UK-PTO

reports that Malta, Iceland and Lithuania have recently completed their parliamentary processes, and will soon become full members of the European Patent Organisation. These accessions mean that applicants will be able to file applications designating Iceland, Malta and Lithuania, but they will not be able to designate these countries retrospectively in earlier applications. It is anticipated that Latvia will also join the European Patent Convention later this year. The European Patent Organisation will soon comprise the following 32 member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

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