Conclusies AG HvJEU, waarin beroep Spanje tegen het Eenheidsoctrooi wordt afgewezen

Conclusie AG  Bot in C-146/13, Spanje v Parlement en Raad en C-147/13, Spanje v Raad.

Uit het perscommuniqué: "[...] Through the ‘unitary patent package’, the EU legislature sought to confer unitary protection on the  European patent and establish a unified court in this area.

Spain seeks annulment of the two regulations forming part of that package, namely the regulation  on the creation of unitary patent protection conferred by a patent and the regulation governing the  applicable translation arrangements. In his Opinion in both cases, Advocate General Yves Bot proposes that the Court of Justice  should dismiss Spain’s actions. [...]

The Advocate General explains that to limit the number of languages for the European  patent with unitary effect is appropriate because it ensures unitary patent protection  throughout the territory of the participating Member States whilst enabling a significant  reduction in translation costs to be achieved. The Advocate General adds that, if those costs  are to be kept down, the EU legislature has no choice but to restrict the number of languages in  which the patent must be translated. Since the languages in question are the official languages of  the European Patent Office, that choice ensures a certain stability for economic operators and  professionals in the patent sector, who are already accustomed to working in those three  languages. Moreover, the choice of languages acknowledges the linguistic realities of the  patent sector: (i) most scientific papers are published in German, English or French; and (ii) those  languages are spoken in the Member States from which most of the patent applications in the EU  originate.

The Advocate General takes the view that that choice also complies with the principle of  proportionality. During the transitional period, all European patents with unitary effect will be  available in English. After that time, the European Patent Office will have a high-quality automatic  translation system. A compensation scheme to reimburse translation costs up to a certain  ceiling is planned for people who have not filed their application for a European patent in one of the  official languages of the European Patent Office.

The Advocate General observes that the principle of legal certainty is undeniably better  safeguarded when one language is authentic (in the case of the European patent with unitary  effect, it will be the language of the case). If all translations were authentic, there would be a risk of  discrepancies between the different language versions, which would give rise to legal uncertainty."

Lees hier de conclusie inzake C-146/13 en hier de conclusie inzake C-147/13.

Lees het perscommuniqué hier.