Thanks to I/P Updates we just learned that France has ratified the London Agreement. This fact does away with the need to translate patents into all the languages of the EPO's Contracting States. Your clients no longer need to worry about needing Bulgarian translations; Czech translation; Danish translations; Dutch translation; Estonian translations; Finnish translations; Greek translations; Hungarian translations; Icelandic translations; Irish Gaelic translations; Italian translations; Latvian translations; Lithuanian translations; Luxembourgish translations; Maltese translations; Polish translations; Portuguese translations; Romanian translations; Slovak translations; Slovenian translations; Spanish translations; Swedish translations; and Turkish translations.
Now, European patent applicants will need to submit their patents in only one of the three official languages of the European Patent Office: French, or English, or German.
Patent claims, however, will have to be translated in all the three official languages- German, French, English.
Interestingly, the previously required translations into national languages of the EPO's Contracting States had no legal status. Had a patent been violated, the legal basis for the case would have been the patent text as granted by the EPO in the official EPO languages (English, French or German).
Here're the benefits of the London Agreement, as outlined on the EPO’s Web site:
- Significant savings in translation costs.
- No publication fees for translations.
- Reduced patent attorney fees.
- An inclusive solution - three languages instead of single-language solutions like "English only."
