On 1 November 2011, the Agreement on the application of Article
65 EPC — the London Agreement — takes effect in
Finland as Acts on Finland's accession to the agreement
(742/2011) and on amendment of the Patents Act (743/2011) enter
into force. The intention of the London agreement is to reduce
patenting costs relating to the translations of European patents.
According to the Agreement a contracting state which does not have
as an official language any of the official languages of European
Patent Office (English, French or German), such as Finland, must
waive translation requirements regarding European patents in whole
or in part. Contracting states must designate one of the three
official languages of the EPO regarding which national translation
requirements are lessened.
In Finland, patentees will be allowed from 1 November 2011 to
validate European Patents nationally by supplying English
translations of the claims and of the specification to the National
Board of Patents and Registration of Finland. A translation of the
claims into Finnish or Swedish, if that is the applicant's
language, is however still required.
The Act entering into force includes also other reforms to the
Finnish Patents Act in terms of language requirements. English is
now available as an official language of decisions regarding
national patent applications allowing applicants to file patent
applications in English and to receive decisions up to patent grant
in English.
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