January 2008
On 1 January 2008, the European Patent Organisation welcomed its two newest members.
As from this date, Norway and Croatia became the 33rd and 34th EPO member states, meaning that any European patent application filed on or after 1 January may designate these countries.
The list of EPO member states, which includes all 27 member states of the European Union, thus now reads as follows :
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Monaco, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, Turkey
with a full list of the PCT member states being available from the links page of this site.Together with the four 'Extension States' (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), this means that a European patent can now provide protection in a total of 38 countries - a market of about 570 million people.