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Malta accedes to the European Patent Convention
1. Accession to the EPC
On 1 December 2006, the Government of the Republic of Malta (MT) deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC) and to the Act revising the EPC of 29 November 2000 (Revision Act).
The EPC will accordingly enter into force for Malta on 1 March 2007.
The European Patent Organisation will thus comprise the following 32 member states as from 1 March 2007:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Further information concerning the effects of this accession and the provisions which Malta has enacted for the implementation of the EPC will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Official Journal.
2. Important information
European patent applications filed on or after 1 March 2007 will include the designation of the new contracting state 1 . It will not be possible to designate Malta retroactively in applications filed before that date.
To allow the new contracting state to be designated, however, the EPO will accord European patent applications filed in February 2007 the filing date of 1 March 2007 if the applicant expressly requests that filing date when filing the application.
3. PCT
The Government of the Republic of Malta also deposited its instrument of accession to the PCT on 1 December 2006, and consequently the PCT too will enter into force for Malta on 1 March 2007 (see separate notice in OJ EPO 2007, 60).
Applicants should note that for international applications it will not be possible to request a later filing date as per point 2 above.
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