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The London Agreement - practical impact

The European Patent Office intends to grant your patent. Almost as soon as you hear this good news, your pleasure in securing a new business asset is instantly marred by the request for instructions . In which of the many countries you blithely designated -sometimes many years ago - do you want this patent to be enforceable? and how much are you prepared to pay.

At this stage you are paying fees to each national patent office, a local agent and translation fees as well as fees to your own patent agent who is organising all this paperwork. The cost of translations has been much criticised and back in 1999 representatives of the governments of the EPO countries got together in France and put together the London Agreement in order to reduce the number of translations that need to be filed.  It came into force on 1 May 2008 because France ratified it on 29 January 2008

Article 65(1) of the European Patent Convention says that contracting states may require the filing of a translation of the text of the patent within three months of the grant date. It is this obligation that the Agreement sets aside.

The EPO page of Key Points also provides much useful information.

Where

Although 8 states including France, the UK and Germany had to ratify for the project to go live, the other states still have a choice .  Therefore there are three types of state. The states which will were playing when the Agreement comes into force are shown in Filemot green in the table below. On 1 January 2011, they have been joined by Hungary.

Italy and Spain are the only two of the most popular seven states that are not yet playing. Given their recent veto on the Community Patent at the 10 November 2010 European Union Competiveness Council Meeting (see press release) it is unlikely they will ever join.

Article 1(1) states are the best - ones where they use English French or German and you won't have to translate at all. Then there are Article 1(2) states which can require a particular language and may ask for the claims to be translated into their language. Finally there are states which have not ratified and where you will still have to translate the entire specification into a relevant language.

Table

This table covers all current member states.  However your patent may not designate them all depending on the filing date and the choices made when the application was filed.

Country

Type

Official Languages
Post  Agreement Translation Requirements

AL Albania  
AT Austria   German
BG Bulgaria   Bulgarian
BE Belgium   French, Dutch or German
CH Switzerland 1(1) German, French or Italian

None

CZ Czech Republic   Czech
HR Croatia 1(2) Croatian

English with Croatian claims

CY Cyprus   Greek
DE Germany 1(1) German

None

DK Denmark 1(2) Danish

English with Danish claims

EE Estonia   Estonian
ES Spain   Spanish
FI Finland   Finnish
FR France 1(1) French

None

GBUnited Kingdom 1(1)  English

None

GR Greece

Hellenic Republic

  Greek
HU Hungary 1(2) Hungarian

English with Hungarian claims

IS Iceland 1(2) Icelandic

English with Icelandic claims

IE Ireland   English
IT Italy   Italian
LI Liechtenstein 1(1) German, French or Italian

None

LV Latvia 1(2) Latvian

Latvian claims only

LT Lithuania   Lithuanian
LU Luxembourg   French but no translation is required now
MC Monaco   French but no translation is required now
MT Malta   English
NO Norway   Norwegian
NL The Netherlands 1(2) Dutch

English with Dutch claims

PL Poland   Polish
PT Portugal   Portuguese
RO Romania   Romanian
RS Serbia  
SK Slovakia   Slovak
SM San Marino   Italian
SI Slovenia 1(2) Slovenian

Slovenian claims only

SE Sweden   Swedish

English with Swedish claims

TR Turkey   Turkish

 

Renewals

Since an English language European patent will auto-validate in several territories you may be surprised to receive overdue renewal notices from the Patent Offices of countries you are not interested in. The Swiss IPO notice in German has surprised at least one client of mine.

The EPO has a table monitoring ratifications here.

Contact me to let me know if I have errors on this page.



Filemot Technology Law Ltd
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London, WC2A 1AL, United Kingdom
Direct +44 (0)20 3043 8550
Fax +44 (0)20 3043 8551
Email
info@filemot.com


Copyright 02 January 2011