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THE LONDON AGREEMENT

The London Agreement has the aim of reducing translation costs in the validation of European . The party states to the Agreement, which at the moment are only some of the Contracting States of the European Convention (EPC), waive or reduce the requirement for translation of the patent in their national language.

Entry into force and application The Agreement was signed in the year 2000 and is expected to come into force around mid 2008, although the exact date is not yet known. European patents which will be granted after the date of entry into force can benefit from the translation regime of the Agreement. Since the European granting procedure is relatively slow, the Agreement will probably be applicable to all pending applications that have not yet received a communication with a text proposed for grant. In general the applicant can slow down the granting procedure at this stage; where we deem this possible, we will contact our clients directly to discuss the issue in relation to specific patents.

How it works European patents are filed and prosecuted in English, French or German (English in the case of most of our clients). Once a patent is granted, the claims are translated into the other two official languages, and then the patent needs to be validated in the different Contracting States of interest. For this validation, each state currently requires a full translation of the description and claims into its own official language; such translations are a significant part of the overall validation costs, especially in the case of long applications. In the future, under the London Agreement:  a member country of the Agreement which has English, French or German as an official language will not require a translation of the patent; and  any other member country of the Agreement will designate one of these three languages and will not require a full translation into its own official language if a text in the designated language is available. All countries that have so far made such designation have selected English.  Member countries of the Agreement may still require a translation of the claims, but this is typically a minor part of the application.

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Ratification The London Agreement is not mandatory for the Contracting States of the EPC, but it is expected that a majority of the EPC contracting states will ratify the Agreement in the next few years, except probably some countries of the south of Europe such as , , , and .

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Up to now the following states have ratified the Agreement, or are expected to do so soon:

London Agreement – ratification expected before entry into force

Switzerland

Cost reduction The cost reduction will depend on the contracting states in which the patent is validated. With the above status of ratification, and if the patent is filed in English:  for validating in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, , Liechtenstein and Monaco, no translation will be required, and the cost for validating in such countries will be significantly lower;  for validating in Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Iceland, Latvia and Slovenia, no translation of the main text of the patent will be required, but a translation of the claims may be needed;  for validating in the rest of the Contracting States, a full translation will still be required, so no cost saving can be expected for these states. A significant cost reduction will therefore be obtained for a patent filed in English and validated in states member of the Agreement such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, etc.

Feel free to contact us for any further clarification, and please bear in mind this sheet is purely for information purposes and does not constitute legal advice.

ZBM Patents – Zea, Barlocci & Markvardsen

December 2007

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