Morocco Decides to Recognize EP Applications and Patents

By Kevin E. Noonan --

The President of the EPO and the Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment and the Digital Economy of Morocco announced on January 19th that Morocco would permit EP applications and granted EP patents to be validated in that country beginning on March 1, 2015.  Upon request from an applicant, Morocco will validate a granted EP patents and recognize pending EP applications (which would then be eligible for validation upon grant) with the payment of a fee to the EPO to designate Morocco.  This route to patent protection is not retroactive, however, and will only be available to EP and PCT applications filed after March 1st.  Patents granted through such a route will have the same protections as in the other members of the European Patent Organization.

This is the first non-European country to offer patent protection based on examination by the EPO.

Hat tip to our foreign associates HGF.

Image of Morocco flag map (above) from Mapsof.net under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 Licence.

Comments

[Dan Feigelson]

Kevin, I think it's misleading to say that Morocco is "the first non-European country to offer patent protection based on examination by the EPO". Many countries' patent offices will look favorably upon a grant of a corresponding case by the EPO and allow claims on such basis; the statute here in Israel explicitly says you can piggyback on the grant of an EPO patent to gain allowance. While that's not quite the same as "validation", in that it's not automatic (and thus different from, say, Hong Kong validating a granted GB or CN patent, which is an automatic procedure if requested), it's not so far from that either.

[Stephen Adams]

I agree with the previous comment. The press release from the EPO seems to have overlooked that there are already two so-called extension states (Bosnia/Herzegovina and Montenegro) which recognise granted EP patents as valid on their territory, subject to their being designated at the appropriate time. Quite why Morocco has not adopted the same status is unclear.

[Kevin E. Noonan]

Dear Dan:

I see your point, but I think it is a different thing for a country to "look favorably" on the EP examination while doing their own, and permitting a patent to be granted without examination based on the grant in Europe. But insofar as that was unclear, this exchange should rectify it.

Thanks for the comment.

[maxdrei]

Which are the countries that grant on the basis of a grant by the USPTO. Canada and?

[Kevin E Noonan]

Max: not sure about Canada, but Australia has a bypas route for granted EP and US patents

Thanks for the comment