Contracting states to the PCT and the EPC

Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Cyprus (CY), Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Estonia (EE), Finland (FI), France (FR), Germany (DE), Greece (GR), Hungary (HU), Ireland (IE), Iceland (IS), Italy (IT), Latvia (LV), Liechtenstein (LI), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Monaco (MC), the Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Spain (ES), Sweden (SE), Switzerland (CH), Turkey (TR), United Kingdom (GB).

Art. 64 PCT WIPO PCT Guide 325

All EPC contracting states are also contracting states to the PCT and bound by its Chapter II (see the PCT Newsletter and the OJ for current status). The EPO can therefore act as designated and elected Office for any EPC contracting state provided the international application was filed on or after the date on which the EPC entered into force for the state concerned. This means that no European patent can be granted for an EPC contracting state on the basis of an international application filed prior to the date of entry into force of the EPC for that state. For some EPC contracting states, patent protection can only be obtained via the European phase, since these states have closed off the possibility of entering into the national phase before the national Office concerned (see point 38). For information on "extension states", see point 39 ff.