Morocco became the first country not signed up to the European Patent Organization to validate European Patents beginning March 1, 2015.
European applications and patents administered by Morocco will have the same legal rights there as national patents, and will be subject to Moroccan patent law post grant. Application filed before the aforementioned date will not be validated, however. Given that divisional applications are restricted to the designated states of the earlier application under Article 76(2), it will not be possible to obtain a validated patent from the Moroccan Industrial and Commercial Property Office by filing a divisional application of an application filed prior to March 1, as well.
The implementing regulations have yet to be announced by the concerned authorities, and there has been no indication if Morocco will implement the London Agreement, which does not require the translation of European patents.
We will be closely monitoring this situation and we will provide you with any necessary updates.
Should you have any questions, or require any additional information, please contact us at info@sabaip.com