"The accession of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia means that companies and individual inventors can extend the protection of their intellectual property even further in the dynamic region of southeast Europe," said Alison Brimelow, President of the European Patent Office (EPO), the executive arm of the European Patent Organisation. "Patents play a vital role in helping firms to be innovative and competitive."

"From seven founding states to 35 members today, the Organisation has proved a success story of international cooperation and European integration; and it continues to grow," Brimelow added.

The European Patent Organisation's members now include all 27 EU member states plus Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. Apart from the Organisation's members, its observer states Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia also recognise European patent applications and patents on their territory.

European patents are therefore valid in 38 countries and reach a market of about 570 million people. It constitutes the largest transnational patent system in the world and also sets the global benchmark in terms of the quality and legal certainty of the patents granted.

The EPO applies a centralised procedure to examine European patent applications for the Organisation's member states. Applicants can obtain patent protection in as many of the member and observer countries as they designate on the basis of a single application.