Patents: Commission proposes translation arrangements for future EU Patent
On 01.07.10 the Commission has issued a proposal on translation arrangements for a future EU Patent. The Commission proposes that EU Patents will be examined and granted in one of the official languages of the European Patent Office (EPO) – English, French or German. The granted patent will be published in this language which will be the authentic (i.e. legally binding) text. The publication will include translations of the claims into the other two EPO official languages. The claims are the section of the patent defining the scope of protection of the invention. No further translations into other languages will be required from the patent proprietor except in the case of a legal dispute concerning the EU patent. In this case, the patent proprietor may be required to provide further translations at his or her own expense. For example, the proprietor may have to supply a copy of the patent into the language of an alleged infringer, or into the language of the court proceedings when this is different from the language of the patent. The Commission expects that the processing costs for an EU Patent covering 27 Member States would be less than € 6200, of which only 10% would be due to translations.
