Country codes and the registers behind them: the 32 countries, their abbreviations, patent offices, medicines agencies and currencies

Where the codes come from

Almost every abbreviation on a patent, SPC or licence record is a two-letter code from one of two lists that agree with each other for Europe: ISO 3166 (the general standard) and WIPO Standard ST.3 (the patent world’s version, which adds codes for offices that are not countries). The EU’s own documents differ in two places: they write EL for Greece where everyone else writes GR, and since 2021 they use XI for Northern Ireland in regulatory systems where the UK’s GB code no longer applies. The United Kingdom’s code is GB, however often “UK” is written; patent and SPC numbers use GB.

The 32 countries MPA covers

Code	Country	Group	Patents and SPCs	Medicines agency	Currency
AT	Austria	EU	Austrian Patent Office	BASG (with AGES)	EUR
BE	Belgium	EU	Office for Intellectual Property (OPRI)	FAMHP (AFMPS / FAGG)	EUR
BG	Bulgaria	EU	Patent Office of the Republic of Bulgaria	Bulgarian Drug Agency (BDA)	EUR (since 1 Jan 2026; lev before)
HR	Croatia	EU	State Intellectual Property Office (DZIV)	HALMED	EUR
CY	Cyprus	EU	Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property	Pharmaceutical Services, Ministry of Health	EUR
CZ	Czechia	EU	Industrial Property Office (ÚPV)	SÚKL	CZK
DK	Denmark	EU	Danish Patent and Trademark Office (DKPTO)	Danish Medicines Agency (Lægemiddelstyrelsen)	DKK
EE	Estonia	EU	Estonian Patent Office	Ravimiamet (State Agency of Medicines)	EUR
FI	Finland	EU	Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH)	Fimea	EUR
FR	France	EU	INPI	ANSM	EUR
DE	Germany	EU	German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA)	BfArM (PEI for biologicals)	EUR
GR	Greece (EL in EU usage)	EU	Hellenic Industrial Property Organisation (OBI)	EOF	EUR
HU	Hungary	EU	Hungarian Intellectual Property Office (HIPO / SZTNH)	OGYÉI, now within NNGYK	HUF
IE	Ireland	EU	Intellectual Property Office of Ireland (IPOI)	HPRA	EUR
IT	Italy	EU	Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM)	AIFA	EUR
LV	Latvia	EU	Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia (LRPV)	State Agency of Medicines (ZVA)	EUR
LT	Lithuania	EU	State Patent Bureau (VPB)	State Medicines Control Agency (VVKT)	EUR
LU	Luxembourg	EU	Intellectual Property Office, Ministry of the Economy	Ministry of Health, Direction de la santé	EUR
MT	Malta	EU	Industrial Property Registrations Directorate	Malta Medicines Authority	EUR
NL	Netherlands	EU	Netherlands Patent Office (Octrooicentrum Nederland, RVO)	Medicines Evaluation Board (CBG-MEB)	EUR
PL	Poland	EU	Patent Office of the Republic of Poland (UPRP)	URPL	PLN
PT	Portugal	EU	INPI (Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial)	INFARMED	EUR
RO	Romania	EU	State Office for Inventions and Trademarks (OSIM)	ANMDMR	RON
SK	Slovakia	EU	Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic (ÚPV SR)	ŠÚKL	EUR
SI	Slovenia	EU	Slovenian Intellectual Property Office (URSIL / SIPO)	JAZMP	EUR
ES	Spain	EU	Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM)	AEMPS	EUR
SE	Sweden	EU	Swedish Intellectual Property Office (PRV)	Swedish Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket)	SEK
GB	United Kingdom	Outside the EU	UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO)	MHRA	GBP
CH	Switzerland	EFTA, bilateral agreements with the EU	Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI / IGE)	Swissmedic	CHF
NO	Norway	EEA (EFTA)	Norwegian Industrial Property Office (Patentstyret)	Norwegian Medical Products Agency (DMP)	NOK
IS	Iceland	EEA (EFTA)	Icelandic Intellectual Property Office (ISIPO)	Icelandic Medicines Agency (Lyfjastofnun)	ISK
LI	Liechtenstein	EEA (EFTA); customs and patent union with Switzerland	Swiss patents and SPCs extend to Liechtenstein	Office of Health (Amt für Gesundheit); Swiss authorisations recognised	CHF

A note on the Swedish agency: its English name is the Medical Products Agency, abbreviated MPA. It is not us.

Groups you will see on the site and in the registers

• EU 27: the member states; the centralised authorisation, data protection and the SPC Regulation apply in all of them.
• EEA: the EU 27 plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, which take on EU medicines law; a centralised authorisation is valid in them, and “first authorisation in the EEA” is the SPC starting point.
• EFTA: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein; only the last three are in the EEA. Switzerland runs its own authorisations and SPCs.
• UK: outside the EU since 2020; its own licences (PL, PLPI), SPCs and data protection, with Northern Ireland following parts of EU medicines law under the Windsor Framework.
• EPC states: the 39 members of the European Patent Organisation, which include all 32 above plus Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino, Serbia and Türkiye; a European patent can be validated in any of them.
• UPC states: the 18 EU member states in the Unified Patent Court system; see the UPC explainer for the list.
• Big 6: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, the markets most parallel-trade and launch work starts with.

Codes that are not countries

Code	Meaning	Where you meet it
EP	European Patent Office (a European patent application or grant)	EP 2 345 678 B1; (19) on the front page
WO	World Intellectual Property Organization (an international PCT application)	WO 2011/123456 A1
EU	European Union, used as the prefix of a centralised marketing authorisation	EU/1/19/1234/001 (product, then presentation)
EM	European Union Intellectual Property Office (trade marks and designs)	EU trade mark numbers; not patents
EA	Eurasian Patent Organization	EA patents; outside MPA’s coverage
XI	Northern Ireland, in EU regulatory and customs systems since 2021	Serialisation, EU databases
XU	Great Britain in the same EU systems (the UK less Northern Ireland)	Rare; appears in some EU data feeds
EL	Greece in EU institutional usage	EU documents and databases; the registers use GR

How the codes appear in numbers

• Patents: the code comes first (EP, GB, DE, FR), then the number, then the kind code: GB 2 500 000 B.
• SPCs: national formats carry the code or imply it: SPC/GB13/021; DE 12 2013 000 021; FR 13C0021; NL 300612.
• Centralised authorisations: EU/1/yy/nnn/ppp, where 1 means human medicines, yy the year, nnn the product and ppp the presentation.
• UK licences: PL nnnnn/nnnn for a product licence, PLPI nnnnn/nnnn for a parallel import licence, with PLGB and PLNI variants for Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• Price lists: each country’s list uses its own product identifiers (PZN in Germany, CIP in France, CN in Spain, AIC in Italy, dm+d codes in the UK); the country code is implied by the list.

MPA Search uses the two-letter codes throughout, with the country pill on each record, so that a product’s position can be read one country at a time or across a preset group.