The deadline for trading based on patent will be extended for one more year until December 31, 2019. Changes to this effect were adopted by Parliament on November 16 after giving them a final reading, IPN reports.

Iuliana Drăgălin, secretary of state at the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, said in Parliament that over 1,500 persons who traded based on patent switched to individual entrepreneurial activity since January 2017 until September 2018. Over 9,000 patents were still valid in September.

The patent was to be banned in 2017, but the deadline was repeatedly extended given that the process of switching over from patent-based activity to individual activity has been slow.

The authorities worked out a series of measures that will be taken in 2019 to encourage the switchover to individual activity.