European Patent Convention (EPC) States

Membership of the European Patent Convention (EPC) is not the same as membership of the European Union. Norway, Switzerland and Turkey, for example, are EPC contracting states even though they are not members of the European Union (EU). Similarly, Brexit has not changed the UK’s status as an EPC contracting state.

At present, there are 39 contracting states (‘member states’) – see Table 1. Contracting states are those countries that are full members of the EPC. In practice, a European patent application automatically covers all available EPC member states via payment of one official designation fee. By default, we select and designate all member states when filing a European Patent Application.  After grant, the applicant can decide which of the available contracting states they wish the patent to be effective in (i.e. “validated”).  

Table 1. Designated States

In addition to the designated EPC contracting states, the application can be extended to certain non-EPC contracting states termed “extension” states and “validation” states.  We do not routinely select these additional states when we file European Patent Applications, we have to be explicitly instructed to do this and incur the additional fees. 

Extension States

Extension states, while not formal members of the EPC, have agreed that a granted European patent may be extended to take effect in that state alongside the designated EPC contracting states. Thus, an extension state effectively recognises and treats a granted European patent as equivalent to its own national patents.

In contrast to member states, extension states are not automatically designated upon payment of the designation fee. Rather, they take effect upon payment of the extension fee at the same time as the designation fee. There is currently only one extension state: Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

However, depending on the filing date, earlier filed European Patent Applications may have selected a state as an extension state which is now a contracting state, such as:

Slovenia

Romania

Lithuania

Latvia 

Croatia

North Macedonia 

Albania 

Serbia

Montenegro

Validation States

It is also possible to validate a European Patent in so-called “validated states” which are often far removed from Europe.  Such a validated patent will confer comparable protection in the validation state to that available in EPC contracting states. At present there are six validation states:

Morocco

Moldova

Tunisia

Cambodia

Laos

Georgia

Costa Rica currently has an agreement being finalised to join as a further validation state.

As with extension states, validation requests must be made earlier in the procedure at the time of paying designation fees and require payment of a separate fee for each selected state. After grant, validation must be completed in each chosen country for the European patent to take effect there.

As EPC membership is ever changing, this information is subject to change. A country’s status as at the filing date of the European application determines if it is a contracting/extension/validation state for that particular application. A country joining the EPC after filing cannot be retroactively included, even if accession occurs prior to grant.

Emma Buchan
Patent Engineer
Cranach Patent Attorneys