London Agreement to come into force on 1 May cutting European patent translation costs

Published: 4 February 2008
By: Peter Prowse

Following the French Senate’s ratification of the London Agreement on Patents last October, a date has now been set for the agreement to come into force.

From 1 May 2008, the cost of translating an average European patent will be halved. Full translations of applications filed in English will not be required to bring European patents into force in 14 European states. Implementation of the London Agreement is also a major step towards completely removing the need for translations of granted European patents into up to 22 languages, which can currently cost up to €30,000.

Robert Weston, President of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, hailed the move as an important step in reducing costs for British companies. “Businesses here will no longer be put off by the high cost of getting patent protection throughout Europe. When other member states of the European Patent Convention that have not ratified the London Agreement, follow suit, it will mean that a single application, made in just one language, will give patent protection in a market of over 300 million consumers. This will put Europe in a similar situation for patenting costs that American companies have enjoyed for decades.

“This is particularly welcome news for small and medium-sized businesses,” he continued,”as it will reduce the average cost of getting European patent protection by more than €7,000.”

Under the previous European patent system, an applicant could get a patent by filing a single application in any of the three official languages of the European Patent Office   English, French and German. Once the patent was granted, it has been the patent owner’s responsibility to determine its geographic scope by having the patent validated in one or more of the 32 member states. Until now, the European patent has had to be translated into the official language of each state in which protection was sought. For anybody wanting protection in all 32 members of the European Patent Convention, this would involve translating their patent into 22 languages at a cost of over €30,000. In practice, European patents have been validated in an average of seven states, requiring translation into five languages at a cost of at least €7,000.

European patents and the London Agreement

In June 1999, France convened an intergovernmental conference of the member states of the European Patent Organisation. One of its aims was to reduce the cost of European patents. This conference laid the groundwork for the London Agreement which was concluded in October 2000.

Under Article 1 of the Agreement, any state having English, French or German as an official language agrees to dispense with the translation requirements. This provision affects Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland and the UK. Under the Agreement, these states agree to dispense with the translation of the description and the legends accompanying drawings into their national language when the language of the proceedings before the European Patent Office is not their national language. However, the claims will always be available in the three European Patent Office languages.

Only eight states (including France, Germany and the United Kingdom) need to ratify or accede to it. This means that the Agreement does not have to be ratified by all member states of the European Patent Organisation.

In July 2006, the Parliaments of ten states – Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Monaco, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK – had approved the Agreement.

According to the European Patent Office's own figures, about a quarter of the total lifetime cost of a European patent is at the validation stage. Without the cost of translations, this will be significantly reduced, making European patents much more attractive for all applicants and more competitive relative to US patents.

The countries that have approved the agreement account for 55% (7.8 trillion US dollars) of the GDP of the contracting states of the European Patent Convention (the EU plus Turkey, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Monaco), which puts the value of the agreement into economic perspective. It is likely that countries such as Italy and Spain will come under pressure to accept the agreement.