2008.05.16 London Agreement
The London Agreement entered into force on 1 May 2008, following the deposit of the instruments of ratification and accession by 13 EPC contracting states – including the 3 where the most European patents took effect in 1999, that is, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
According to the Protocol, a contracting State can belong to one of the following categories :
Member State having an official language in common with one of the official languages of the EPO (English, French and German)
Within these Member States, it is no longer necessary to provide a translation of the granted European patent, regardless of the language in which the procedure is carried out. The Member States concerned are :
France
Germany
Liechtenstein
Luxemburg
Monaco
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Member States having no official language in common with one of the official languages of the EPO.
These States may demand that a translation of the claims into one of their official languages be supplied.
The following states require that the claims be supplied in their official language:
State (Language)
Croatia (Croatian)
Denmark (Danish)
Iceland (Icelandic)
Latvia (Latvian)
Netherlands (Dutch)
Slovenia (Slovene)
The above states may also demand that the specification of the granted patent be supplied in a specific official language of the EPO.
The states having stipulated a specific language are :
Croatia (English)
Denmark (English)
Iceland (English)
Netherlands (English)
The states which have not stipulated any specific language are :
Latvia
Slovenia
In these states, it is therefore not necessary to provide a translation of the specification.
