The London Agreement will halve the cost of European patents,
according to the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA).
Though full agreement was reached last October, the implementation
date of 1st May has only now been agreed.
"Businesses here will no longer be put off by the high cost of
getting patent protection throughout Europe," said Robert Weston,
president of CIPA. "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 to the situation for
patenting costs that American companies have enjoyed for decades,"
said Weston.
The London Agreement was made in 2000 and allows for patents to
be valid even if not produced in all Europe's languages, cutting
translation costs dramatically.
Eight countries had to ratify the Agreement before it could come
into force, and three of those had to be the UK, Germany and
France. Eleven countries have now signed up, and France was the
last of those to do so last October.
It does away with the need to have an entire patent application
translated into the language of every country in which the
applicant wants it to take effect.
Countries where English, French and German is not the native
tongue will choose one of these to be their language of patents. As
long as the patent is available in that language, the patent holder
will not have to translate it into the official language of that
country.
For countries where the official language is English, French or
German the patent holder will not have to produce a translation as
long as the patent is in one of those three languages. The patent
claims, which outline the scope of the patent, will have to be
produced in all three languages, though.
CIPA estimates that the new rules will save more than €7,000 in
costs per patent, on average. Previously an applicant could get the
right to have a European Patent Office patent just by filing in
English, French or German.
But they had to translate the patent into the language of any
country where they wanted the patent to take effect. CIPA said that
translating into Europe's 22 official languages would cost over
€30,000.
CIPA said that on average patents were translated into seven
languages, at a cost of €1,000 per language.
“This is particularly welcome news for small and medium-sized
businesses as it will reduce the average cost of getting European
patent protection by more than €7,000," said Weston.
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