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London Agreement in Force - the end of expensive translations?

1 May 2008

Today, May 1st 2008, the London Agreement finally comes into force, heralding a new era of cheaper patents across Europe. For European Patents granted from today, a number of the expensive translation requirements occurring at the grant stage will no longer be necessary, and small and large businesses alike can now expect savings of up to 40% during the national validation stage of obtaining a European patent.

The London Agreement establishes that member states can only require that claims be translated into their national language, provided that the European patent is in the official language that they have designated under the Agreement. Countries that have English, French or German as a national language do not get this option, and are not able to require a translation beyond that required during the grant procedure before the European Patent Office (EPO). The remaining member countries have, so far, universally selected English as the preferred language. Thus, for these countries, where the patent is in English, then only the claims need to be translated.

At this time, the member states are the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Croatia, Iceland, Latvia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and Denmark. There is as yet no indication of whether any further states intend to become signatories.

Significant countries that do not currently intend to become a party to the London Agreement include Italy and Spain and, for the time being at least, full translations continue to be required here and in all other non member states. For example, Belgium and Austria remain outside the Agreement, so that for a European patent to be valid in these two countries, full translations into French and German, respectively, will still be required.

Although the London Agreement does not yet extend even to a majority of European member states, it already offers a significant cost saving in the three primary countries of the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and it is expected that more countries will sign up as existing members of the Agreement begin to reap the benefits.

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