2.2 Closure of the national route

The national law of a number of EPC contracting states stipulates that only a European patent may be obtained for these states on the basis of an international application. The countries which close off the route to a national patent in this way are Belgium (BE), Cyprus (CY), France (FR), Greece (GR), Ireland (IE), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Monaco (MC), Montenegro (ME), Malta (MT), Netherlands (NL), San Marino (SM) and Slovenia (SI).