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French Senate approves London Agreement - European patent grant costs to plummet
The French Senate voted on 9 October 2007 by 280 votes to 33 in favour of the London Agreement. Consequently, all legal barriers have now been overcome and the London Agreement will come into effect four months after France deposits its instrument of ratification with the European Patent Office (EPO); implementation is expected in the first half of 2008.
Once implemented, it will no longer be necessary to file a translation of the specification when validating a European patent in many European countries. The Agreement will affect all patents granted after the date of enactment in the participating countries. The reduction in the cost of validating a European patent will be enormous.
As users of the European patent system will be aware, although patents are granted centrally by the EPO, for a granted European patent to have effect in a given country the entire document needs to be translated into the official language of that country. To validate in all of the 32 available countries, the specification is needed to be translated into 22 different languages. Due to the high cost of translation, the average cost of a European patent is said currently to be three times the cost in the US and twice the cost in Japan.
In an attempt to reduce post-grant translation costs, the London Agreement was concluded in October 2000, proposing to remove the obligation of Article 65(1) EPC to file a translation of the text of the patent in each country. The Agreement needed to be ratified by the three main European countries, but France held out for many years. Once France ratifies, the Agreement will be in effect in France, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Liechtenstein , Monaco, Slovenia, Iceland and Latvia. The agreement has been approved by Denmark and Sweden, and these countries are expected to ratify shortly. The costs of validating a European patent in a country which has ratified the London Agreement will fall by around 60-80%, depending on the country and the length of the specification. Total grant costs are expected to fall by around 50-70% depending on the length of the specification and the countries in which validation occurs.
Patent applicants should strongly consider taking steps to defer patent grant until after the agreement comes into force, wherever possible. Our attorneys can advise how this might be achieved.
In terms of the effect of the Agreement on UK validation proceedings, there will be no requirement for applications granted in French or German to be translated into English upon grant. However, during court proceedings, or in proceedings before the Comptroller of the Intellectual Property Office, an English translation may be required.
