In a ceremony called ‘Focus Morocco’, held on Friday (March 13), the EPO and the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC) celebrated the new partnership.

Benoît Battistelli, president of the EPO, and Moulay Hafid Elalamy, Morocco’s minister of industry, trade, investment and the digital economy, both attended the event in Munich.

It followed an announcement by the EPO in January that the OMPIC had agreed to validate European patents from March 1.

The agreement marked the first time a non-European country agreed to recognise and validate European patents in its territory.

European patents obtained in Morocco will have the same legal rights as Moroccan patents and be subject to Moroccan patent laws.

The total number of countries that can now be covered by a European patent is 41.

Battistelii said: “For applicants of European patents this signifies an important administrative simplification which makes it possible to easily extend the scope of geographical protection available to them.”

Elalamy said it put Morocco in the position of the “gateway to Africa” and helped to strengthen the country’s image as a good place for foreign investment.