On December 11, 2012 the European Parliament agreed upon the EU Council’s compromise proposals for two draft regulations for the unitary patent. The first regulation addresses unitary patent protection while the second details the translation arrangements for said protection. Spain and Italy are refusing to participate in the EU’s legislative process of enhanced cooperation because their languages are not being featured. Under these agreements, unitary patents will only be required to be translated into French, English, or German in order to be enforced.
Since the volume and range of translation is greatly reduced, costs for IP lawyers will decrease significantly. Furthermore, it will be easier and cheaper to challenge and defend patents since litigation will no longer vary by country, which has resulted in especially complex situations when different national courts have reached different decisions on a single patent.
Conversely, the translation industry may suffer adverse effects; for example, in that the demand for translations into 21 of the 24 official EU languages will certainly decrease; however, the demand for translations into the three EU working languages (German, French, English) will certainly increase. It is argued that these changes will only affect a negligible portion of the translation services industry.
In addition to a unitary patent, inventors can still opt to apply for national patents. Prior to the introduction of the unitary patent, lawyers had to consider translation costs for documents into 24 official EU languages. This national method made patenting an estimated 15 times more expensive in Europe than in the US, thereby harming competition. Europe hopes to narrow the gap after these long-awaited agreements.
When Will the European (Unitary) Patent Be Implemented?
These agreements, however, will not actually go into effect until at least 13 states have ratified the “Agreement on a Unified Patent Court,” requiring that France, Germany, and the UK be among those thirteen. To date, only Austria and France have ratified the agreement on August 6, 2013 and March 14, 2014 respectively.
A Court of First Instance, a Court of Appeal, and a Registry will constitute the UPC (Unified Patent Court). The Court of First Instance will consist of a central division with a seat in Paris, two sections in London and Munich, and local and regional divisions in contracting member states. The Court of Appeal will be in Luxembourg.
The so-called “patent package” will eventually enter into force “either on the first day of the fourth month after the deposit of the 13th instrument of ratification or on the first day of the fourth month after the date of entry into force of the amendments to Regulation.” Neither are expected to happen before 2016.
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