New Members of the European Patent Organisation

Effective from July 1, 2002 the Slovak Republic (SK), Bulgaria (BG), the
Czech Republic (CZ) and Estonia (EE) will become member states of the
European Patent Organization.

European patent applications filed on or after July 1, 2002 hence will
include the designation of these states. It will however not be possible
to designate these states retroactively in applications filed before that
date.

To allow the new member states to be designated, however, the EPO will
accord European patent applications filed in June 2002 the filing date of
July 1, 2002 if the applicant expressly requests that filing date when
filing the application.

The accession of the Slovak Republic, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and
Estonia to the European Patent Organization becomes effective on July 1,
2002. The European Patent Organisation will then comprise 24 member
states:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republik, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

An intermediate regulation is provided for European patent applications
filed in June 2002. Upon explicit request of the applicant when filing the
application, the filing date of July 1, 2002 is accorded.

This regulation is particularly relevant for applications which are
intended to be filed in June claiming a priority date of or later than
July 1, 2001. For these applications it should be considered to file such
request allowing the designation of the new member states while still
validly claiming priority.

For more detailed information see:
http://www.european-patent-office.org