The European Patent Office has signed an agreement with the Kingdom of Morocco under which, at the end of the European procedure, a granted patent may be validated also in Morocco. This brings to 41 the number of countries for which patent protection can be obtained on the basis of a single European patent application.

However, it is important to remark that Morocco does not accede to the European Patent Convention (EPC) but it requires a validation procedure similar to the procedure implemented for the “Extension States” (currently Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro). In order to validate a European Patent in Morocco it is necessary that such Country has been specifically designated, that the relevant fee has been paid, as “Extension State”, and that the application has been filed on or after 1st March 2015.

The European procedure allows the designation of Extension and Contracting States by payment of designation fees within the fixed term of 6 months from the publication of the Search Report of the European Patent Application.