Moldova: Validation Agreement Enters into Force

flag MoldovaThe European Patent Office (EPO) announced in a recent press release that the agreement on the validation of European patents between the EPO and the Republic of Moldova has entered into force on November 1, 2015. With the recognition of the EPC, the Republic of Moldova followed Morocco to become the second country which is not a member of the European Patent Organization but gives the same legal effects to a European patent as a national patent on its territory.

With the entry into force of the agreement, it is thus possible to obtain patent protection in the Republic of Moldova by having a European patent granted by the European Patent Office. A national granting procedure in the Republic of Moldova is no longer necessary. However, in order to validate the European patent in the Republic of Moldova, the payment of a so-called validation fee is necessary. The amount of the fee is currently EUR 200 and the due date for paying the validation fee expires 6 months starting from the notice of the publication of the European search report. For Euro-PCT applications the validation fee will be due at the time for entering of the application into the European phase before the EPO.

For the validation of the granted European patent in the Republic of Moldova, a translation into Moldovan of the description, claims and figures of the European patent has to be filed with the State Agency on Intellectual Property of the Republic of Moldova. Both, the translation and a publication fee are due within three months of the date on which the mention of the grant of the European patent is published.

Taking into account the current EPC contracting states, validation and extension states, including the Republic of Moldova, a European patent can now provide patent protection in a total of 42 European and non-European countries.

Foto: © Maxence, [CC BY 2.0]

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
This entry was posted in European Law, Patent Law and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to Moldova: Validation Agreement Enters into Force

  1. Rita says:

    Thank you for this article.

    What are the typical costs for extending patent protection of a granted European patent to the Republic of Moldova? Are there any official fees besides the validation fee after the patent has been granted? What about translation requirements?

  2. Andreas Schmuck says:

    Does anyone know the status of the agreement on the validation of European patents for Tunisia? I cannot find a box for Tunisia at Epoline Online Filing.

  3. @Rita:

    Thank you for your comment. The validation fee for the Republic of Moldova is currently fixed at 200 EUR, see: http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2015/10/a84.html.

    The publication fee to be paid after the European patent has been granted is not yet known. The translation costs will depend on the length of the patent specification.

    @Andreas Schmuck:

    The EPO has reported having signed an agreement with the Tunisian government on the validation of European patents for Tunisia on July 3, 2014, see https://www.epo.org/news-issues/news/2014/20140704.html. However, the Tunisian government will first have to ratify the agreement before it can enter into force. To do so it is also possible that the Tunisian legislation must be amended.

    The amount of the validation fee for Tunisia is not yet known.

  4. Por Chandara says:

    Thank you for this article,

    Could you please explain me the procedure that lead to Validation Agreement with EPO? If it is possible, could you please share me the agreement on the validation of European patents for Morocco? I want to learn more about that.

    Best Regards,

  5. @ Por Chandara:

    Thank you for your comment. The validation procedure is not based on direct application of the European Patent Convention but is rather governed by the national law in Morocco.

    The rules on the validation system in Morocco are codified in Art. 50.1 to 50.5 of Law No. 17-97 on the protection of industrial property, as amended by Law No. 23-13, the related secondary legislation and the information notice from the Director-General of the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC).

    For further information please refer to the Official Journal (EPO), No. 1, 2016, Citation A5:

    https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2016/01/a5.html

  6. Thanks for this great article and information. Such as I really got Nice information.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*