The London Agreement: simplification of national stages of the European patent
16.03.2008
According to the London Agreement, the validation stage of the European patents the date of grant of which will be published from the 1st May, 2008 will be simplified.
Indeed, for a specification in French, no more formality is necessary for validating in Germany and United Kingdom.Also included are countries for which French used to be the official language, i.e. Belgium, Swiss, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and Monaco.In order to have a patent right valid in these said countries, it will only be required to pay the national annuities.In the following countries, only the translation into national language of claims is necessary, with, in some cases, an English translation of the description: Albany, Denmark, ex-Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovenia and Sweden.
