Лондонское соглашение: снижение затрат на перевод европейских патентов.

The London Agreement, formally the Agreement on the application of Article 65 of the Convention on the Grant of European Patents and sometimes referred to as the London Protocol, is a patent law agreement concluded in London on 17 October 2000 and aimed at reducing the translation costs of European patents granted under the European Patent Convention (EPC). The London Agreement is an agreement between some member states of the European Patent Organisation,

Before 1 May 2008, once a European patent was granted or more precisely within three months (or six months for Ireland) from the date of grant, the patent had to be translated into an official language of each country in which the patentee wanted patent protection. If the translation of the European patent was not provided to the national patent office within the prescribed time limit, the patent was "deemed to be void ab initio in that State." This situation still applies in the Contracting States wherein the Agreement has not entered into force. This situation led to high translation costs for patent holders, reduced the incentives to apply for a European patent and, many argued, the situation was a burden on the competitiveness of the European economy, compared to the situation in the United States (see also EU's Lisbon Strategy).

The agreement provides that Contracting States that have an official language in common with an official language of the European Patent Office, i. e. English, French or German, no longer require translation of European patents into one of their official languages. Other contracting states have to choose one of the official languages of the EPO as a "prescribed language," in which European patents have to be translated to enter into force in their country. They however keep the right to require translation of the claims in one of their official languages. In addition, a Contracting State to the Agreement also keeps the right to require that, in case of a dispute relating to a European patent, a translation should be provided by the patentee in one of the official languages of the state. The agreement has not altered other language provisions applying prior to grant of a European patent, such as the requirement that the claims of a European patent application have to be translated "in the two official languages of the European Patent Office other than the language of the proceedings" after receiving the communication under indicating that the EPO intends to grant a European patent.

The Agreement resulted from a process started at the Paris Conference on 24–25 June 1999, an intergovernmental conference of the member states of the European Patent Organisation held in Paris at the invitation of the French government. The conference adopted a mandate setting up two working parties with the task of submitting reports to the governments of the contracting states on reducing the cost of European patents and harmonising patent litigation.|group=notes

The Agreement was then adopted at the London Conference of 2000, She called the London Agreement "an important step in the right direction". Since France deposited its instruments of ratification on 29 January 2008, the agreement entered into force on 1 May 2008. the approval by the French Constitutional Council, the announcement in August 2007 by the new Prime Minister François Fillon that the London Agreement would soon be ratified, the approval by the French Council of Ministers, and eventually the adoption by the National Assembly and the Senate of the ratification act on 26 September 2007 and on 9 October 2007 respectively.