Cambodia - Europe's New Frontier?

Since 1 March 2018, it has been possible to obtain patent protection in 44 countries across Europe and beyond into north Africa and southeast Asia, by filing a single patent application in the European Patent Office (EPO). 

In addition to the 38 countries that are member states of the European Patent Organisation, patent protection can be obtained in some additional countries by paying further official fees to the EPO at the same time as paying the EPO’s official designation fee, and then confirming the local registration of the patent in those countries after a patent has been granted by the EPO.

Between 1993 and 2009, the EPO entered into cooperation agreements with ten countries in the European region that were not EPO member states.  Most of those countries have since become full member states, but it is still possible to use these agreements to obtain protection in Montenegro and in Bosnia & Herzegovina.  These are referred to by the EPO as “extension states”.