The London Agreement and the Cost of Patenting in Europe

Malwina Mejer and Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie

No 7033, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper analyses the consequences for the European Patent System (EPS) of the recently ratified London Agreement (LA), which aims to reduce the translation requirements for patent validation procedures in 15 out of 34 national patent offices. The simulations suggest that the cost of patenting has been reduced by 20 to 30 percent since the enforcement of the LA. With an average translation cost saving of €3,600 per patent, the total savings for the business sector amount to about €220 millions. The fee elasticity of patents being about -0.4, one may expect an increase in patent filings of eight to 12 percent. Despite the translation cost savings, the relative cost of a European patent validated in six (thirteen) counties is still at least five (seven) times higher than in the United States.

Keywords: European patent system; fee elasticity; London Agreement; patent fees; translation costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O34 P14 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-ino, nep-ipr and nep-reg
Date: Written
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP7033.asp (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: The London Agreement and the Cost of Patenting in Europe (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7033

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP7033.asp

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers
Address: Centre for Economic Policy Research, 53--56 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DG
Series data maintained by ().