Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Free movement of goods - Quantitative restrictions - Measures having equivalent effect - Patent granted by the European Patent Office - National legislation deeming the patent void for failure to provide a translation of the specification in the official language of the Member State

(EC Treaty, Art. 30 (now, after amendment, Art. 28 EC))

Summary

$$Article 30 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 28 EC) does not preclude the application of national legislation, under which a patent granted by the European Patent Office with effect in the Member State concerned and drafted in a language other than the official language of that State is to be deemed void ab initio if the patent holder does not file with the patent office of the Member State in question a translation of the patent specification in the official language of that Member State within three months of the publication in the European Patent Bulletin of the fact that the patent has been granted.

Whilst it must be accepted that there will probably be differences in the movement of goods depending on whether inventions are protected in all the Member States or only in some of them, entailing division of the internal market, the repercussions on the free movement of goods are too uncertain and too indirect to be considered to be an obstacle to trade between Member States, since the repercussions on intra-Community trade of any competition on the non-protected markets will depend above all on the actual, unforeseeable decisions taken by each of the operators concerned in the light of the economic conditions existing on the various markets.