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Patent Attorney Axel H Horns' Blog on Intellectual Property Law.

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Sunday, February 06, 2005

France still blocking London Agreement.

The Chartered Institute of Patent Agents (CIPA) is a professional body representing Patent Attorneys in the UK. With regard to the

London Agreement

they recently wrote:

"[...] CIPA strongly supports the London Agreement and would like to see it ratified and implemented as quickly as possible so that users of the patent system can benefit from the significant cost savings that it will bring. However, CIPA is not in favour of the UK abolishing the requirement for translations unilaterally or giving effect to the Agreement in UK law in advance of the Agreement entering into force. [...]

There are concerns that the Agreement may never take effect if countries such as France have problems with ratification. In this case, users of the patent system would continue to bear the burden of high translation costs, which can be prohibitive for SMEs in particular. There have been suggestions that in this case a similar arrangement within a smaller group of countries might be beneficial. However, we believe that the UK should ratify the Agreement now and see if this encourages other States. Indeed, we urge that all efforts are made to persuade France in particular to ratify. If there is no progress after a reasonable period, say one year, CIPA would support the UK engaging in discussions among a smaller or different group of countries. [...]"

I think that there should still be some hope that one day France will eventually let the ratification of the London Agreement pass through her national legislation.

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