Validation of European patents

The validation of a European patent allows the patent holder to obtain, in the countries designated in the application filed, the same rights obtainable with a national patent in the same countries.

Once the application for a European patent has been granted, the applicant must validate it in the designated countries within three months, including a careful patent translation.

The translation of a granted patent must completely conform to the original text and at the same time be drawn up with precision and clear language, since it is effectively a technical-legal document.

To this end, in order to avoid any litigation, it is essential to continue to rely on professionals for patent translations, as they are competent experts in the subject matter of the specific patent.

What is a European patent?

A European patent is obtained through a unified procedure that includes, in a nutshell:

Filing the patent application
The relative examination
The consequent granting by the European Patent Office

A European patent granted as such can be validated in the countries designated by the applicant in the application for filing, which have accepted the European Patent Convention – EPC

Validating European patents

The granting allows the specific country that has filed the European patent, such as Italy, the right to convert it as a patent already granted in the designated countries, and not in a further patent application.

The validation procedure therefore includes filing the translation of the patent granted in the language of the country where it is requested, but according to the different methods established by the national legislation of the reference country.

For this reason and for the purposes of a legitimate patent validation process, it is important to work with a local consultant (Italian in the case of filing in Italy) who is competent in the matter, in order to understand the validation methods as well as any criteria for completing the patent translation.

In fact, for the purposes of validation, the national patent application must be translated into one of the official languages established by the EPO: English, French, German (Article 14 EPC).

Depending on the validation country, the translation must be provided in the national language of the reference country, if it is not one of the official ones.

In this case, however, the unofficial language must be supported by a legal translation into one of the official languages.

Any changes to the patent must be communicated through a correction of the text with a further translation.

Benefits of validation

A procedure that includes the transition of a European Patent to its validation in the selected countries among those included in the EPC is an advantage in:

Economic terms, as activating an equivalent filing procedure in every contracting country can be decidedly expensive;

Strategic and management terms, as with the European procedure the same patent is obtained in each designated country. On the other hand, when working with autonomous procedures for each country, there is a risk of having different patents granted.