EPO and Rospatent sign patent translation deal
European and Russian innovators can now freely translate patent applications in both English and Russian, under an agreement signed by the regions’ patent offices in May 2012.
The European Patent Office (EPO) and Rospatent have exchanged full-text versions of patent documents that can be translated on the EPO’s website. This is the first time in the history of the European patent system that Russian-language patents will be available in English.
“This agreement breaks new ground in the relationship between the EPO and Russia,” said EPO president Benoit Battistelli. “It will bring the wealth of technology contained in patents to the fingertips of innovators in both our regions, removing language as a delimiting factor,” he said.
He said that small and medium-sized businesses and research institutions will “especially” benefit from the deal. Boris Simonov, director general of Rospatent, added that the agreement will encourage further innovation in the two regions.
This closer, more formal relationship follows a rise in patent filings from Europeans in Russia, and vice versa. Applications by companies from EPO member states filed with Rospatent increased by about 10 percent from 2010 to 2011. The number of applications filed by Russian inventors and companies at the EPO in 2011 was up 19 percent on the previous year.
