The Council held on 12 October a policy debate in public deliberation about the draft regulation aimed at establishing translation arrangements for a future EU patent system. The political orientation highlights that a European patent will be an important instrument for European business whose innovation capacity depends on the existence of a reliable and accessible system of patent protection throughout the internal market.

The draft regulation put forward by the European Commission in July 2010 to reduce translation arrangements for a future EU Patent is aimed at setting up the translation arrangements for the EU patent that are cost-effective (reducing the costs to ensure the accessibility to patent protection), simplified (less administrative burden and unnecessary complexity for the users) and ensure legal certainty (avoiding uncertainty caused by translations having legal effect), in order to stimulate innovation.

The outcome of the ministerial debate provides guidance and good basis for continuing work with a view to achieving an agreement as soon as possible on this long-standing file. 

After this meeting, the Council has reiterated the importance of an enhanced patent system in Europe for boosting the competitiveness of our innovative industry and in particular of our SMEs, underlining that a very large majority of delegations supported the compromise proposed by the Belgian Presidency, which should serve as basis for further discussions.

Several delegations stressed the importance of the accompanying measures being made available by the time the EU patent system becomes operational. Mesures such as a high quality system for machine translations of patent documentation into and from any EU language and the full compensation of the costs related to the translation of a patent application drafted in an EU language other than one of the EPO languages.

Most delegations pointed out that the red lines for finding a final compromise are that no significant costs should arise from additional translations and that the new system should not result in legal uncertainty.

Languages in the European patent system

Under the current European patent system, the EPO examines and grants European patents, but for the granted patent to be effective in different member states, the patent holder has to request validation individually in each one.

Commission's original proposal built on the existing language regime of the European Patent Office (EPO) and proposed that EU patents, as all European patents, will be granted in one of the official languages of the EPO: English, French or German. The applicant would be free to choose between an EU patent and a "bundle" European patent. In the case of EU patents, only the translation of the claims into the other two EPO official languages would have to be provided by the applicant. No further translations would have to be provided by the applicant and no validation in the member states would have to take place to enforce the EU patent throughout the EU.

The EU patent regulation should come into force together with the separate regulation on the translation arrangements for the EU patent.