On 1 July 2013 Croatia became the 28th member state of the European Union.
This will have the effect of extending the geographical scope of Community trade marks and Community designs, to include Croatia. An important step is the integration of Croatia’s trade mark data into TMview, a database with around 11 million trade marks searchable free of charge via the Internet.
Community trade marks and Community designs registered with the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM) before 1 July 2013 will automatically be extended to Croatia on that date. The same applies for pending applications for such rights. The geographical scope of unregistered Community designs will also be automatically extended.
European patents will be largely unaffected by the change, since the European Patent Office is independent of the European Union. Croatia has been a contracting State of the European Patent Convention since 2008.
