Progress on London agreement

The London Agreement offers a significant reduction in the translation costs required to bring a European Patent into force in several European countries. As readers of this newsletter may recall, ratification by France is all that is required to bring the Agreement into effect. On this front, there has been progress with the French Constitutional Court having ruled that the agreement is not contrary to the French Constitution. The Agreement must now be approved by the French parliament and president. However, with presidential elections, it is highly unlikely that parliamentary time will be found for such approval in the immediate future.

The London Agreement is a voluntary agreement to reduce, or dispense with entirely, translation requirements to bring a granted European Patent into effect in a contracting state. In particular:

• Countries having English, French or German as a national language agree to waive translation requirements entirely; and

• other countries must prescribe one of English, French or German which will be accepted, although these countries may require translation of the claims into their national language.

The Agreement does not prevent countries from requiring a translation into their national language in the event of a dispute. Further, countries which are not parties to the Agreement will not be bound by its terms.

So far Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Monaco, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK are parties to the Agreement.

Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands and Sweden have all selected English as their prescribed language and require translation of the claims into their respective national languages. Latvia and Slovenia already merely require translation of the claims.