1. ¹Bird & Bird, 90 Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1JP, Tel: +44 (0)20 7415 6000, Fax: +44 (0)20 7415 6111
2. ²Cooley Godward LLP, 5 Palo Alto Square, 3000 EI Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306-2155, USA Tel: +1 650 843 5000, Fax: +1 650 857 0663

Abstract

The Competitiveness Council of Ministers met last month to discuss the outstanding issues concerning translation of patents in the proposed community patent regime. A year ago, the Council agreed in principle that reliance, in good faith, on an inaccurate translation of a patent would allow the alleged infringer to continue using the invention for up to four years. However, in the recent meeting, the Council was unable to agree on the length of time to be allowed for filing translations into the languages of the other member states.