European Patent divides the EU

A previous blog reported the problems of getting the whole of the EU to agree how many languages patent applications should be translated in to.

The official languages of the European Patent Office (“EPO”) are English French and German. However, the law of each EU country can currently require a translation into the local language. The European Commission has reported that it can cost €14,000 in translation costs for the application to be translated into 13 languages and this makes the process expensive for smaller businesses.

On 30th June 2010 the European Commission considered 4 options:-

1) An EU patent system in English only;

2) An EU patent processed, granted and published in one of the three official languages of the European Patent Office with claims translated into the other two official languages;

3) An EU patent processed, granted and published as in option 2, but with claims
translated into the other four most commonly spoken EU official languages; and

4) An EU patent processed, granted and published as in options 2 and 3, but with claims translated into all EU languages.

The Commission recommended option 2, but some countries, notably Italy and Spain, strongly objected.

Now Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK have asked the European Parliament to allow them to implement Option 2 as between them by requesting “enhanced cooperation”. Enhanced cooperation enables a group of Member States to agree on legislation that will operate only amongst them when it has proved impossible for the 27 Member States to reach agreement.

If approved by the European Parliament applicants will have to provide translations into Spanish and Italian to get European Patent applications validated in the Spanish and Italian Patent Offices, for example, but the proposal is still opposed by the Spanish and Italians.

However, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament approved the proposal for “enhanced cooperation”, so we’re nearly half way to a European Patent process which will significantly reduce translation costs. 

Written by Jim Carter, a Director in the Nelsons Commerce and Technology group. To find out more about our Commerce & Technology group, click here.