London Agreement update
This article was included in our Winter 2009/10 edition of Inside IP.
Lithuania acceded to the London Agreement on 1st May 2009, bringing to 15 the number of the 36 European Patent Convention member states that have ratified the Agreement. Our clients are continuing to experience reductions in the cost of validating European patents, and it is envisaged that validation costs will continue to fall as further states accede to the Agreement.
A European patent granted in English can now be validated in eight states (Germany, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the UK and Ireland) without requiring any translation of the granted patent specification. Only a translation of the claims is required to validate a European patent granted in English in Lithuania, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Croatia, Iceland, Latvia, and Slovenia.
Translations of the claims into French and German do still need to be filed at the European Patent Office prior to grant. This requirement is not expected to be removed, neither is the requirement to pay the official grant and printing fee.