Under the agreement with the European Patent Office (EPO) on the validation of European patents in the Republic of Moldova, any European patent application filed on or after 1 November 2015 can be validated in Moldova once the patent has been granted by the EPO. Validation in the Republic of Moldova occurs at the applicant’s request. A reference to the Republic of Moldova as a validation state has been included in the EPO’s request for grant form and in the in the Euro-PCT filing form.

The required actions are as follows:

– The validation fee must be paid to the EPO within six months of the date at which the European Patent Bulletin announces the publication of the European search report. For Euro-PCT applications the validation fee will be due within the period for performing the acts required for an international application’s entry into the European phase. A two-month grace period is provided for late payments with a surcharge of 50%.

– The proprietor of the European patent shall furnish to the State Agency on Intellectual Property of the Republic of Moldova the specification translated into Moldovan and pay the prescribed fee for publication. The translation shall be furnished and the fee paid within three months of the date on which the mention of the grant of the European patent has been published.

After validation, a European patent will confer the same legal protection in Moldova as a national Moldovan patent.

Please contact us for further information if you are filing new European or international applications and are interested in extending the protection to Moldova. You can read our previous update of 23 October 2015 here.

For more information on this subject, see the below links to the EPO’s Official Journals:

http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2015/10/a84/2015-a84.pdf

https://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/official-journal/2015/10/a85.html