By Robert Dailey —

Norway will become the 33rd member of the European Patent Organization on January 1, 2008.  Therefore, any European patent applications filed on or after January 1, 2008 may designate Norway as a contracting state.

No retroactive designations will be permitted.  Nevertheless, the EPO will accord applications filed in December 2007 a filing date of January 1, 2008, if the applicant expressly makes such a request.

This also means that European patents for Norway may issue from PCT applications filed on or after January 1, 2008.  For PCT applications filed prior to that date, however, any resulting European "national phase" patents will not provide patent protection in Norway.  In those instances, applicants will still need to prosecute a separate national phase application in Norway.

Official notice from the EPO Official Journal can be found here.  The EPO Journal will provide further details on Norway’s implementing legislation.