EU unitary patents – translation arrangements

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EU) No 1260/2012 — translation arrangements for the unitary patent

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

It establishes the translation arrangements for the 26 EU countries that signed up to the European patent with unitary effect (known as the ‘unitary patent’).

KEY POINTS

A unitary patent which has been published in 1 of the 3 official languages of the European Patent Office (EPO) – English, French and German – and for which the claims have been translated into the other two, in accordance with Article 14(6) of the European Patent Convention, does not need to be translated into other official EU languages.

A patent holder, suspecting an infringement of their patent, must:

provide, at the alleged infringer’s request, a full translation of the patent into the official language of the EU country where the alleged offence took place or the alleged infringer lives;
provide a full translation of the patent into the official language of courts in other European unitary patent countries which may become involved in the legal proceedings;
pay the translation costs involved.

Courts, required to assess damages in a dispute, must consider whether the alleged infringer is:

a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME),
a natural person or non-profit organisation,
a university or public research organisation.

They must also consider whether the alleged infringer acted unintentionally.

A compensation scheme:

helps reimburse, up to a set ceiling, the translation costs for patent applications filed in an official EU language other than 1 of the 3 official EPO languages;
is funded by patent renewal and late payment fees;
is available only to SMEs, natural people, non-profit organisations, universities and public research organisations whose residence or principal business location is in an EU country.

Transitional measures state during 6 years as of the date of entry into application of that regulation:

unitary patent applications lodged in French or German must be translated into English and those lodged in English into any other official EU language;
an independent expert committee, 6 years after the date of application and then every 2 years, must evaluate the ability of high-quality machines to translate patent applications and specifications;
the European Commission must present a report to EU governments on the basis of the committee’s first and subsequent evaluations.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

The regulation will apply four months after the deposit of the 13th instrument of ratification of the Unified Patent Court Agreement (provided this includes the 3 countries in which the highest number of European patents have effect — Germany, France and the United Kingdom (1)) to the Secretariat of the EU Council.

BACKGROUND

Decision 2011/167/EU authorised the 25 countries to use the EU procedure of enhanced cooperation to work together in creating unitary patent protection. Spain and Italy decided to stay out of the scheme.

A single application to the European Patent Office makes it possible to secure patent protection in up to 26 EU countries. This simplifies procedures and reduces costs for applicants wishing to protect their inventions.

For more information, see:

Unitary patent (European Commission)
Unitary Patent & Unified Patent Court (European Patent Office).

MAIN DOCUMENT

Council Regulation (EU) No 1260/2012 of 17 December 2012 implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection with regard to the applicable translation arrangements (OJ L 361, 31.12.2012, pp. 89-92)