free trade agreement between the efta states and the republic of serbia

- 3 -Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property and the General Assembly of theWIPO in 2001.Article 4PatentsThe Parties shall ensure in their national laws at least the following:(a)(b)adequate and effective patent protection for inventions in all fields oftechnology, in accordance with the level of protection provided in theEuropean Patent Convention (EPC); anda compensatory term of protection for pharmaceuticals and plantprotection products, which shall be calculated from the expiry of themaximum term of patent of 20 years for a period equal to the periodwhich elapsed between the filing date of the patent application and thedate of the market authorisation of the product, reduced by a period offive years. Such compensatory protection shall cover a period of fiveyears at the most and shall be granted under the following conditions:(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)the product is protected by a patent in force;there has been an official marketing authorisation for themedicinal or plant protection product 1 ;the pharmaceuticals and plant protection products have notalready obtained a compensatory term of protection;the right conferred by the patent has been postponed byadministrative procedures regarding authorisation of marketaccess, so that the effective use of the patent amounts to less than15 years; andthe effective protection conferred by the patent and thecompensatory protection shall together not exceed 15 years.c) a six month extension of the compensatory term of protection forpharmaceuticals referred to in subparagraph (b) may be grantedaccording to the national law of a Party.1For Serbia this applies to marketing authorisation for pharmaceuticals and plant protectionproducts granted after 1 January 2005.