The majority of granted EP patents have an English specification, and for those, the questions arises which language should be selected for the UP translation. Most effective would be one that can be re-used to a significant degree:
- If your EP patent shall be validated an EU state that is not participating in the UPC, with full-text translation requirement such as Spain, in addition to the UP, the translation in that language can be used for both procedures without any further adaptation.
- If your EP patent claims priority from a first filing in a language of an EU member state, the priority application may be used as a basis for the translation. The same applies if the EP application was originally filed in such language and only later translated into English.
- If none of this is the case, the German or French claims, filed in response to the intention to grant, can serve as a partial translation and may prompt to choose either a German or French translation. A further consideration is then the language of the most likely jurisdiction for proceedings in case of a dispute, which is often Germany.
A further option may be a re-use for obtaining parallel protection in addition to the UP as a safety measure. A national validation of the same EP patent in a UPC member state is excluded by the unitary effect, and prosecuting a divisional application for basically the same patent is rather expensive. For Germany, the most often validated EPC member state, a low-cost alternative would be to branch-off a German utility model with same scope, which thereby effectively becomes an examined right. In technical fields, accessible to protection by such right, this allows to cover for 10 years, even if the UP gets revoked. Such utility model requires a full-text translation into German which could be the corresponding UP translation.
DIPS International can provide you with all required German, French and English translations, including amending your pre-existing translations in these languages.
