How to Reduce European Patenting Costs With The London Agreement

By Robert Games
This is an agreement aimed at reducing the cost of translation following the grant of a European patent. It is otherwise known as the "Agreement on the Application of Article 65 of the Convention on the Grant of European Patents".

Contracting States of the European Patent Convention (EPC), which is essentially the law governing the application, prosecution and grant of EU patents, that have ratified the London Agreement, undertake to waive, either partly or in full, translation of a granted European patent attorney. The level of waiver depends on the language of the patent and the official languages of the Contracting State.

For example, the UK is a Contracting State that has ratified the London Agreement. The de facto 'official' languages in the UK are English and Welsh. If a patent is prosecuted in French, then to complete the grant process before the EU Patent Office (EPO), the claims must be translated into English and German. In order then to 'validate' the EU Patent in the UK and/or Germany, no further translations are required under the London Agreement. However, a full translation into Italian would be required if it were to be validated in Italy. If protection in the Netherlands or Sweden were required, then as part of the validation procedure, a translation of only the patent claims into Dutch or Swedish respectively would be necessary.

The Agreement entered into force on 14 May 2008 and applies to all EU patents in respect of which the mention of grant was published in the European Patent Bulletin on or after 14 May 2008. There are currently fifteen countries that are party to the Agreement.

Albright Patents is a full service UK based patent and trademark attorney company offering representation before the UK Patent Office (UKIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO) and internationally before WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation). We can also file patent applications in almost any country throughout the world.