European Patent Office: PCT Competence

The European Patent Office (EPO) grants patents to members of European Patent Convention which are Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, United Kingdom, Czech Republic and Sweden. The following countries also form part of the European Patent Organization (EPO countries): Switzerland, Croatia, Monaco, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, Norway, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro.

Those who are qualified to apply for patent application are residents or nationals of the aforementioned states.

Requirements as a receiving office for international application:

1. “The EPO is competent to act as the receiving Office for an international application provided that the applicant is a national or resident of an EPC contracting state which is also a PCT contracting state (currently the case for all EPC contracting states). If there are two or more applicants, at least one must be a resident or national of an EPC contracting state. A person mentioned only as an inventor does not qualify as an applicant. Hence, the nationality or residence of a person mentioned only as an inventor is irrelevant for determining whether the EPO is competent to act as receiving Office.
2. The international application is filed in one of the EPO’s official languages (English, French or German).”

If the applicant or one of the applicants is not a resident or national of any member state of the EPO, the application will be transmitted to the International Bureau of World Intellectual Property Office.