1. Accession to the EPC

On 28 October 2008, the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MK) deposited its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention (EPC).

The EPC will accordingly enter into force for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on 1 January 2009.

The European Patent Organisation will thus comprise the following 35 member states as from 1 January 2009:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Further

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The European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) have agreed to move forward on work sharing and to support the recently initiated co-operation of the five largest intellectual property offices (the three Trilateral Offices plus the Korean and Chinese IP Offices, known as IP5).

Meeting at their 26th annual Trilateral Conference in The Hague on 14 November, the heads of the three offices also agreed to contribute to further developing the Patent Cooperation Treaty, and implement a number of work-sharing projects. Co-operation between the EPO, USPTO and JPO began in 1983, with annual Trilateral conferences held alternately on each continent.

"Trilateral co-operation will be an important driver of the IP5 process," said

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Hmm.. need a break in the trademark-related entries from our US colleague at Cantor Colburn?  ;-)

As usual the EPO has a new schedule of fees ready for 1 April with most fees being raised by 5% or other like fair amounts.

Beware of the new claim fees and annual maintenance fees, however !!

As you know, the EPO charges a fee, currently 45 EUR, for each claim above 10 claims. Starting from 1 April 2008, this is changed to a fee of 200 EUR for each claim above 15 claims. A raise of this order seems to be a political tool for having us reduce the number of claims. This is further emphasized by yet another fee change scheduled for 1 April 2009, where in addition each claim above 50 claims

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As Axel H. Horns earlier mentioned in his post, the London Agreement enters into force on 1 May 2008. Now the EPO finally updated their information on the matter, see http://www.epo.org/topics/issues/london-agreement/implementing.html and http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legislative-initiatives/london-agreement/key-points.html, including specifics on the relevant countries. In short, the current status is:

The countries not listed below, still require full translation of patents into a national language, as usual! 

Apart from the translation of the claims into all 3 official EPO languages (English, French and German) required by the EPO for issuing a European patent, no further translations are required for

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Today, the German Ministry of Justice has confirmed that the French Instrument of Ratification for the London Agreement has reached the premises of the German Foreign Office yesterday, 2008-01-29, in the evening hours. Hence, the London Agreement will enter into force on

The London Agreement will be effective for all European patents in respect of which the mention of grant was published in the European Patent Bulletin after May 01, 2008, to the extent of the present geographical coverage of the Agreement. See also the related statement on the Official website of the EPO.

The text of the London Agreement is available &

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