EPO-Georgia Validation Agreement is Effective
The validation agreement between the European Patent Organization and Georgia entered into force of 15 January 2024. As a result of this validation agreement, Applicants are now able to validate their European patent applications and patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in Georgia, provided that they are filed on or after 15 January 2024. For Euro-PCT applications, the international filing date of PCT applications must be also on or after this date.
In order to validate European patent applications and patents, a validation fee must be paid at the same time as the designation fees. Once the European patent is granted, a translation of the patent into Georgian must be filed to validate the European patent in Georgia.
The European patent applications and patents validated in Georgia according to the validation agreement will have the same effect and be subject to the same conditions as Georgia’s national patents.
This validation agreement provides opportunity to the European patent applicants to select Georgia for obtaining patent protection through the European patent grant procedure, which reduces costs, time and administrative work. This increases attractivity of the European patent system which, with Georgia, provides for obtaining a patent protection on the basis of a single European patent application in 45 countries.
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