The Belgian presidency seeks to broker a political consensus among member states on the European Commission’s proposal for translation arrangements, published on June 30. The suggestion is for EU patents to be examined and granted in English, French or German, the official languages of the European Patent Office. Patents would only be required to be translated into other languages in the event of a dispute.

However, the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently gave extra ammunition to those opposed to the idea of EU patents being examined and granted in only English, French or German, the ScienceIBusiness Bulletin reports in its latest issue. He stated that the plan to create a single court for litigating patent disputes is, as it stands, incompatible with EU treaties.

One reason given is that the proposal to operate in English, French and German only is contrary to the rights of defendants who do not speak, or work in, these languages. The Court of Justice is not obliged to accept the advice of its Advocate General, but even if it does not the opinion provides ammunition for countries including Spain, Italy and Poland, which are against the three languages proposal.

“The Advocate General’s conclusion seems very negative, but if you read the actual opinion it does not exclude the compatibility of the patent court with the European treaties,” Aendenhof said. He added that the language issue for Single EU patent and for the patent court shouldn’t be confused. “What the Council is dealing with at the moment are the language arrangements for the EU patent, following a proposal by the Commission on June 30. This is a different discussion than the language regime for the court.”

Source and further information: ScienceIBusiness Bulletin, September 2, 2010.