WRITTEN QUESTION E-1177/98

by Ulf Holm (V) to the Commission

(29 April 1998)

Subject: Swedish language under threat

For a number of years, the European Patent Organization, EPO, has persistently raised the question of changing the rules governing patent applications in Europe. The EPO is now proposing that only a small part of a patent should need to be translated into the language of the country in which the application for a patent is made. Under the proposal, it should in the main be sufficient to translate the whole of the patent into English, German and French.

The implications of the proposal are that the position in the EU of languages such as Swedish would be severely restricted. It is also an attack on our democratic principles. Swedish citizens would lose their right to read documents nationally applicable in Sweden in their own language.

Does the Commission consider that this proposal is in keeping with the democratic principles whereby every EU citizen should have the right of access to applicable documents in their own language? What does the Commission intend to do to prevent the marginalization of certain languages in the EU? Does the Commission consider that the number of official languages in the EU should be limited with the forthcoming enlargement in view?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(11 June 1998)

The cost of obtaining a patent in Europe is at present extremely high, and this seriously damages the competitiveness of innovatory firms, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, which are unable to obtain effective protection for their inventions. This has a harmful effect on firms, but also on the European economy in general and on employment. One of the factors which contribute most to the cost of a European patent is the requirement that the patent holder translate the whole of the patent into all the languages of the relevant countries (some DEM 22 500 or ECU 11 000 on average per patent).

The European Patents Office (EPO) is currently examining a number of possible ways of reducing these costs. The aim is to ensure balance between dissemination of the technical information contained in the patents and keeping costs at a reasonable level. A common feature of all the possible solutions under examination is that they do not involve any discrimination between languages. In other words, it is not in any way the intention to give preferential status to one or more languages at the expense of others, but to reduce or adapt the volume of documents to be translated into all the languages. Both the "global" and the "compact" solutions aim to identify those elements in a patent which are important for the dissemination of information and must, consequently, be translated into all the languages, and both solutions ensure equality of treatment between the languages.

The Green Paper on the Community patent and the patent system in Europe, adopted in June 1997(1), also puts forward various suggestions regarding the language arrangements applicable to a Community patent. The Green Paper sets out six alternatives to the current language arrangements, but none of them involves any discrimination between the various Community languages. The Commission does not therefore share the Honourable Member's opinion that there is a risk of the Swedish language being marginalised.

Consultations on the Green Paper are currently being carried out with the parties concerned (industry, patent agents, small and medium-sized businesses, inventors and translators) and the other Community institutions. Parliament is expected to give its opinion soon on the report by Mr Anoveros Trias de Bes on the various suggestions put forward in the Green Paper, including those regarding translation requirements. Once the consultation process has been completed, it will be for the Commission to envisage the measures that must be taken in order to make the patent system in Europe simpler, more effective and less costly.

(1) COM(97) 314 final.