Since 1st May 2008 the “London Agreement” has come into force: fewer costs for patent owners

On 1st May 2008 the “London Agreement” came into force, thanks to which the 14 countries adhering to the Convention on European patents completely or partially renounce to the deposit of a translation in their own language of the description and the claims of the patent as issued at the time of the confirmation of the European patent.
Essentially, the owner of the European patent, in order for the monopoly title to be protected, within 3 months of the concession of the patent, must confirm the patent in the countries they are interested in, depositing a translation in the official state language both of the description and of the claims. This results in high costs for the owner of the patent, considering that there are generally more than one state in which the patent will be confirmed.
Now, thanks to this agreement between states, costs are substantially reduced. In fact, the countries that have already ratified the agreement, have renounced, at least in part, to the honour of depositing a translation.
In particular, in order to validate a European patent in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, France and Germany it is no longer necessary to deposit any translations.
Croatia, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Holland do not require a description if it has already been done in English, whilst it is only necessary to have a translation of the claims in the official state language.
Latvia and Slovenia only require the translation of the claims in their language.
Since the majority of the applications for European patents by Italian companies are deposited directly in English, it may be established which savings may be made for the owner of the patent from this agreement.
Unfortunately, up until now, countries such as Italy and Spain have still not ratified the “London Agreement”, making necessary, therefore, the deposit of the translation both of the description and of the claims.
We hope that there will be further ratifications on behalf of all the states adhering to the Convention on European Patents.