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Have you noticed that the effect of the London Agreement already enters into force tomorrow, February 1, 2008 at least in Switzerland (http://www.ige.ch/d/jurinfo/j10008.shtm , sorry German only) and in the United Kingdom (sorry no link, but info is safe). What about the other countries? The Germans are not ready now. The old law of 2003 (http://www.bgblportal.de/BGBL/bgbl1f/bgbl103s2470.pdf) is wrong. According thereto, June 1, 2008 would be the day of entry-into-force. It is under repair.

Do we have anybody from France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Croatia, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovenia?
 
 

 

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@Rainer:

Hmmm.... I've just visited the website of the CH-IGE and the notice reads:

"Das EPÜ-Sprachenübereinkommen tritt am 1. Mai 2008 in Kraft."

The German Act of 2003 comprises Article 4 concerning entry into force, obviously intended to say that the provisions of the Act shall enter into force on the same day as the London Agreement does.

Indeed, Article 4 refers to a 4 months term contrary to the London Agreement where there is a 3 months term. What a mess! Thanks for that hint.

Finally, concerning UK: I do not know any particulars.

But: Under the present EPC situation, each and every EPC Member State is free to abandon the requirement of filing a full translation. In fact, the EPC does *allow* EPC Member States to require translations but this is not a mandatory scheme.

Hence, theoretically EPC Member States could sincle long have abandoned the translation requirement unilaterally. It is a purely political matter that no one of the EPC Member States has been prepared before to act unilaterally.

From this point of view, the London Agreement is the embodiment of a political minimal consensus for a legally binding fixing of something like a 'do ut des' policy: At least the core group of EPC States (DE, UK, FR) plus a quorum number of further Member States must pledge each other to accept (partial) abolishment of the translation requirement before it becomes reality. And, please read the London Agreement carefully, it does not plainly say that all translation requirements are abandoned.

The claims will have to be translated anyway into the two Official languages which are not language of the proceedings, and signatories to the London Agreement retain certain liberties to require translations.

So, it might well happen that UK waives full translation requirements earlier than May 01, 2008, but I have not seen any confirmation thereof.
 
 

 

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For UK see the running discussion on the IPKat blog. Seems that UK waived Art 9 of the London Agreement, and as a result is free to start now, while everybody else has to wait till May 01.
 
 

 

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Axel, you don't have to publish this.

Die schweizer Webseite sagt:

Es ist beabsichtigt, die erforderlichen Änderungen des Patentgesetzes und der Verordnung auf denselben Zeitpunkt in Kraft zu setzen an dem das Sprachenübereinkommen in Kraft tritt (s. BBl 2005 7495). Die Übergangsregelung sieht vor, die Übersetzungspflicht für alle Patente fallen zu lassen, bei denen im Zeitpunkt des Inkrafttretens der Änderungen des Patentgesetzes die Frist zur Einreichung einer Übersetzung noch nicht abgelaufen ist (vgl. Art. 148 PatG in seiner Fassung vom 16. Dezember 2005, vgl. BBl 2005 7495).