Single EU patent

Cost of translation of the single EU patent

On 11th December 2012, the European Parliament passed legislation to promote simultaneous filing of a patent application in all EU member states. A patent for a given invention can henceforth only be filed once, instead of 27 registrations in 27 EU member states. This makes it possible to greatly reduce the registration costs. The new regulation is not a directive, and therefore it is not a hard law, which would result in an obligation on the part of member states to implement it and issue secondary acts. It may be, but it doesn’t have to be adopted by Polish Sejm.

Who loses out on the introduction of unitary patent protection?

Patent attorneys, patent attorney’s offices, advocates and law firms as well as national associations of patent attorneys are clearly losing out. They simply get one order to register a patent instead of 27 orders, a separate one for each country.
In practice, very few entrepreneurs decided to seek protection for their inventions anywhere else outside Poland. This is evidenced by the number of applications for Polish inventions, exposing the sad truth that Polish inventors cannot afford to pay for 27 patent applications.

Who benefits from the introduction of unitary patent protection?

It is obviously the inventors who benefit the most. The cost of patenting an invention across the European Union is estimated to fall by about -70% to -80%. The fees for all patent applications in the EU currently amount to ca. € 25,000, and after the introduction of the single system are expected to be between € 5,000 and € 7,000.

Will the clients of ATT INTERWERS Technical Translation Agency benefit from the new law?

Above all, we hope that this new European law, which largely concerns technical and legal-technical translations, will encourage Polish entrepreneurs and inventors to promote the development and innovativeness of their businesses, giving them a real tool to legally protect their ideas. Our hopes are firmly rooted in the positive development stimulus for business that comes with a single European patent.