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send via emailFrench move cuts the cost of European patents
The cost of using European patents to gain widespread protection across the region will fall thanks to France's ratification of the London Agreement earlier this year.
Currently anyone wanting to use a European patent to gain protection in France, Germany or the UK, needs to have the patent translated into that country's official language. Under the London Agreement, a patent written in any of these languages will automatically come into force in all three countries, as well as in other countries that have chosen to use one of the three languages for their patent work.
A European Patent Office survey estimates that a typical European patent is validated in seven countries, in five languages, at a translation cost of €7000. These costs should be significantly reduced once the simpler regime comes into effect.
The London Agreement could only become effective when it had been ratified by France, Germany and the UK, the three countries with the most patent activity in Europe, and eight of the 32 member countries of the European Patents Convention. It will now come into force on 1 May 2008.
The Agreement has now been ratified by 13 countries: Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland and the UK. Seven of these (France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland and the UK) use one of the three official languages and so no longer require their own translation.
Croatia, Denmark, Iceland, and the Netherlands each require translations into their languages plus English. Latvia and Slovenia have not prescribed a language under the articles of the London Agreement and so no translation is required.
Ian Fletcher, chief executive of the UK Intellectual Property Office, said: "The simple step of cutting patent translations will save businesses more than €2600 for a typical European patent application. This is a major saving, particularly for SMEs, and I welcome the decision by the French government which has allowed it."
Several more countries are expected to ratify the Agreement now that France has done so. Some countries remain opposed to the Agreement, worrying that their economies and languages will be sidelined or that English will become the language of choice for European commerce.