Extension of European patents to Bosnia and Herzegovina

On 1 December 2003, the President of the European Patent Office and the Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina signed an agreement on co-operation in the field of patents (Co-operation and Extension Agreement).

This agreement entered into force on 1 December 2004. From this date it will be possible to extend the protection conferred by European patent applications and patents to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Extended European patent applications and patents will enjoy essentially the same protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina as the patents granted by the EPO for the currently 30 member states (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) of the European Patent Organisation.

Extenxion occurs at the applicant's request. Extension of European Patents is now possible to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Latvia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and to Serbia and Montenegro.

Further information will be published on the homepage of the European Patent Office respectively in the Official Journal of the European Patent Office.