TRANSLATION COSTS TO VALIDATE AN EUROPEAN PATENT

Published on 08 April 2016

It is well-known that a European Patent (EP) is a “bundle of individual national patents.” A granted EP is to be validated in member countries of interest, a process that may involve translation of the claims or the entire specification. As an IP professional, it is difficult to provide an accurate estimate of translation costs to a client. This is where our software Global IP Estimator can be of immense help, as illustrated in the below example.

Let us consider a relatively simple case of a granted EP comprising 30 pages (no drawings; five pages of claims), filed in English. Let us also assume that the EP is to be validated in Germany (DE), France (FR), United Kingdom (GB), Italy (IT), The Netherlands (NL), Spain (ES), Sweden (SE), and Switzerland (CH), jurisdictions that have been designated in at least 90% of EP applications (EPO Annual Report, 2014).

An estimate of the total costs (official, associate, and translation) incurred in each country for validation.

There are no official costs in CH, FR, and GB, while the official costs in the other jurisdictions are only a fraction of the total cost estimates.

Translation is not required in CH, DE, FR, and GB. However, the translation costs in the other four countries are pretty high (Table 3). The translation costs in SE and NL are relatively low as only the claims are required to be translated, as compared to ES and IT, which require translation of the entire specification.

Based on these costs, one can imagine how expensive it could be to translate complex patent applications where the specification runs into 100 or more pages. Added to this, there is also the fluctuation in exchange rates that has to be factored into the equation. Thus, it is vital to accurately predict these costs in order to facilitate proper allocation of funds. Our software has been validated by both academicians (WIPO, 2008) as well as industry professionals.

Interested in our products or want to know more? Contact us right away!

Exchange Rates Used:

1 US Dollar = 0.90 Euros, 0.99 Swiss Francs, 0.70 British Pounds, and 8.49 Swedish Krona