5.8 Designations, extensions and validations
5.8.3.How can the Euro-PCT application be extended or validated (Form 1200, Section 11)?
5.8.010Extension or validation of a European patent is possible only if the state concerned was designated in the international application for a national patent and an extension or validation agreement with the European Patent Organisation was in force at the international filing date (see points 2.13.001 and 2.14.001).
5.8.011Extension or validation is deemed requested for any international application entering the European phase in respect of any state designated in the application with which an extension or validation agreement was in force at the international filing date. However, such request is deemed to be withdrawn in respect of each extension or validation state for which no extension or validation fee is paid in due time. The applicant must, therefore, carefully check for which states extension or validation is possible and pay the required fees in due time (see point 5.8.001).
5.8.012An extension or validation fee must be paid for each extension or validation state for which protection is sought. There is no flat extension or validation fee. All applicable fees must be paid within the same time limit as applies for payment of the designation fee (see point 5.8.001).
5.8.013In Form 1200, Section 11, applicants may indicate for which states they intend to pay (an) extension or validation fee(s). In addition to the box provided for the state with which an extension agreement was in force on 1 January 2023 – i.e. Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA) – and those with which a validation agreement was in force on 1 January 2023 – i.e. Cambodia (KH), Morocco (MA), the Republic of Moldova (MD) and Tunisia (TN) – further states may be indicated on condition that an extension or validation agreement with that state was in force at the filing date of the international application. An example is Montenegro: it became an EPC contracting state on 1 October 2022 and the extension agreement with it was therefore terminated with effect from that date, but the extension system nevertheless continues to apply to all Euro-PCT applications with an international filing date up to and including 30 September 2022 (see points 2.13.001 ff).
5.8.014Upon payment, the applicant must specify the extension or validation states for which payment is actually made by indicating the correct fee code which is assigned to each individual extension and validation state.68 If EPO Form 1200 is filed online or Central Fee Payment service is used for effecting payments, the correct fee code is automatically selected when selecting the corresponding extension or validation state in the fee selection process.
68See "Schedule of fees and expenses" available at epo.org/applying/fees/fees.html.