“The accession of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia means that companies and individual inventors can extend the protection of their intellectual property even further in the dynamic region of southeast Europe,” said Alison Brimelow, President of EPO, the executive arm of the European Patent Organisation. “Patents play a vital role in helping firms to be innovative and competitive.”
With the accession of Macedonia, the EPO has grown from seven founding states to 35 members. These now include all 27 EU member states plus Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. The observer states Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia also recognise European patent applications and patents on their territory.
European patents are therefore valid in 38 countries and reach a market of about 570 million people. The EPO claims that this constitutes the largest transnational patent system in the world and also sets the global benchmark in terms of the quality and legal certainty of the patents granted.
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