Following last year’s accession to the PCT (effective as of 8th December 2016), on 23rd January 2017 Cambodia signed an agreement with the EPO to extend the validity of European patents to Cambodia, upon request of the applicant.
After Morocco, Moldova, and presently Tunisia, Cambodia will become the 4th non EPC member State to have a validation agreement with the EPO.
This Agreement will only enter into force once adopted into Cambodian law, tentatively scheduled for July 2017, however, with a waiver concerning pharmaceutical products, which will be excluded from the agreement during a transitional period.
The attractiveness of European patents, which already cover virtually all European countries and are beginning to penetrate the African continent, will increase even further with this extension into Asia – with potentially 43 States and a market of over 650 million inhabitants covered.
