Publication
title
The London Agreement Reduces Translation Requirements for European Patents
DATE
November 5, 2007
It will soon become significantly less costly to obtain patent protection in European countries. The coming into force of the London Agreement means that the requirements for translating a granted European patent into the national language of each contracting state that is a party to the European Patent Convention in which patent protection is sought will in many cases be waived or simplified.
So far the London Agreement has been ratified by Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Monaco, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The London Agreement is expected to enter into force during the first half of 2008 following formal ratification by the second chamber of the French parliament on October 9, 2007.
According to the current practice, once a European patent has been granted by the European Patent Office (EPO) in one of the three official EPO languages (English, French or German), the patent must be validated in each contracting state in which patent protection is sought. The process of validating a granted European patent requires that the description and claims of the patent document be translated into the national language of each individual state. Consequently, translation costs associated with the validation stage can be substantial, depending on the number of states in which the patent is validated, the size of the patent document, the languages involved and the technical field of the patent.
The states party to the London Agreement have approved a simplified post-grant language regime for the purpose of reducing post-grant translation costs. States having a national language that is also one of the three official languages of the EPO, such as Germany, France, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, will waive the translation requirements completely. According to EPO practice, the claims will still be available in the three EPO languages.
Other states having no national language in common with an official language of the EPO will agree to waive the translation requirements if the European patent has been granted in the official language of the EPO prescribed by that state for that purpose. However, these states will still have the right to require that the claims be translated into one of their national languages. For example, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark have prescribed English as the official language of the EPO for purposes of the description but will still require a translation of the claims into their respective national languages. The claims are generally significantly shorter in length than the description.
The main benefit of the London Agreement will be that the cost of validating a granted European patent in individual states that are party to this agreement will be significantly reduced. The new requirements will apply to European patents which are granted after the London Agreement comes into force. Therefore, in some pending cases it may be desirable to try to delay the grant of European patents until the London Agreement comes into force in order to reduce or eliminate translation costs associated with national validation of the patent.
André Thériault
The purpose of this document is to provide information as to developments in the law. It does not contain a full analysis of the law nor does it constitute an opinion of Ogilvy Renault LLP or any member of the firm on the points of law discussed.
© Ogilvy Renault LLP 2007 - All Rights Reserved
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