The future of patent translation / Patentübersetzung nach dem Londoner Übereinkommen

Gemäß dem Londoner Übereinkommen, das 2008 in Kraft tritt, sollen weniger Übersetzungen für Patente anfallen:

Die Vertragsparteien des Übereinkommens verpflichten sich, auf die Einreichung von Übersetzungen europäischer Patente in ihre Landessprache ganz oder weitgehend zu verzichten. Für die Praxis bedeutet dies, dass Inhaber europäischer Patente künftig keine Übersetzung der europäischen Patentschrift vorlegen müssen, wenn das Patent für dem Londoner Übereinkommen angehörende EPÜ-Vertragsstaaten erteilt ist, in denen eine der EPA-Sprachen Amtssprache ist. In allen anderen Fällen ist eine vollständige Übersetzung der Patentschrift in die Landessprache nur dann vorzulegen, wenn das Patent nicht in der von dem betreffenden Staat bestimmten EPA-Sprache vorliegt. Die Einzelheiten sind in den Artikeln 1 und 2 des Übereinkommens ausgeführt.

Mit diesem Übereinkommen ist ein Durchbruch in der Sprachenfrage erzielt worden, der das europäische Patent künftig deutlich kostengünstiger machen wird.

The London Agreement is to come into force in 2008 and provides that fewer translations will be needed to register patents:

The Parties to the Agreement undertake to waive, entirely or largely, the requirement for translations of European patents to be filed in their national language. This means in practice that European patent proprietors will no longer have to file a translation of the specification for patents granted for an EPC Contracting State Party to the London Agreement and having one of the three EPO languages as an official language. Where this is not the case, they will be required to submit a full translation of the specification in the national language only if the patent is not available in the EPO language designated by the country concerned. For more details, see Articles 1 and 2 of the Agreement.

This breakthrough on the language issue will significantly reduce the cost of European patents.

RWS Holdings, a global translation company that does a large amount of patent translation, is not too concerned about this, according to the Scotsman:

The company added that an expected £1m hit from a new agreement aimed at reducing the translation costs of patents granted under the European Patent Convention, due to come into force in spring next year, would be offset by the company’s strong performance in the next financial year.

The IPKAT reports this with a dry remark (and further links):

A recent story in the Scotsman reports that RWS plan on taking a £1 million hit when the agreement kicks in, but don’t see this as being much of a problem with a turnover in excess of £46 million. The future is bright, apparently, and the loss of a few German and French translation jobs is nothing to be worried about.

One thought on “The future of patent translation / Patentübersetzung nach dem Londoner Übereinkommen

  1. Maybe certain hotels in Tirol could also publicise German instead of Austrian hospitality when the majority of their staff except the cooks, though masquerading in Dirndls and Alpine jackets, are German and cater overwhelmingly for visiting Bavarian regiments of holiday-makers.

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