An EP patent is a regional patent based on an agreement made by 30 states (situation in January 2005). You can apply for a European patent by filing a single patent application that is processed in Germany or Holland. Once an EP is granted the applicant decides in which contracting states he wants to validate the patent. When a patent is validated in a contracting state it has the legal effect of a national patent in that country. This process of validation also applies to the extension states (not regular members of the European Patent Convention).

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The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) system is based on an agreement that encompasses 124 states (situation January 2005). Due to this agreement an applicant can file an international patent application (PCT application) designating all states. After a central examination the applicant is informed whether or not their invention is considered patentable. The applicant has 30 months from the priority date to file national and/or regional applications in their target states.

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In general a patent is in force for 20 years from the filing date. A further extension of up to 5 years may be granted in several European countries and also others outside of Europe for patents of drugs and pesticides. The extension period in the U.S.A. may surpass 5 years.

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We make available tables summarizing the legal requirements for all the countries in whose languages we specialize. Click here to see national legal requirements in the main Western European countries. For information on European Patent laws of other EU members or the extension states visit http://www.european-patent-office.org/index.en.php.

Intellectual property legislation from a wide range of countries and regions is provided by the Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA http://www.wipo.int/clea/en) in addition to treaties on intellectual properties administered by WIPO.

Information can be sought directly from most national or regional patent offices though their web sites. The WIPO supplies a list of URL’s of national or regional patent offices at http://www.wipo.int/directory/en/urls.jsp.

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A translation of the PCT international application is required when the language in which the PCT international application is filed is a language which is not a language of publication and/or a language accepted by the PCT international Searching Authority which is to carry out the PCT international search.

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In this case, the applicant must provide the receiving office with a translation of the PCT international application into a language which is both a language accepted by that authority and a language of publication. The applicant has 1 month from the date on which the PCT international application was received by the receiving office to furnish a translation.

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We specialize in translating into and out of the main Western European languages: French, Italian, German and Spanish known in the industry as FIGS; as well as English, Dutch, Portuguese, and Swedish. By limiting the languages we offer we can focus on bettering our resources for these languages and offering a far more extensive range of specialization.

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We consider the following factors when calculating the cost of a project:

1. The word count of the original files;
2. The target and source languages;
3. How technical/specialized the content to be translated is;
4. Terminology, translation, copy editing and proofreading;
5. If volume discounts apply;
6. How short the timeframe is.

AbroadLink offers 4 standard packages of service or we can customize a solution for your company to suit our customers' needs better. Our quotes feature a detailed breakdown of cost. There are no hidden costs for typing or formatting.

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Before translation begins we have a consultation with our clients to establish the exact documents required for translation, the target states, and the deadlines for filing. Note that for some large projects we will assemble a translator and editor team to obtain a greater daily translation rate in order to meet tight deadlines. In our quote we will offer you a guaranteed time of completion. (See our Timely Delivery Guarantee table).

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You can choose to send us documents via whatever means are available and convenient for you such as electronic mail, courier, FTP, fax, mail, etc. In the same way the final product will be delivered according to your preferences.

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From the moment you request a quote until the moment you have received the final product and accepted its contents your project is carefully monitored. We believe communication with you is essential. At any time during the work, you can request from your assigned project manager a progress report on the project or use the ftp access provided by AbroadLink to your project components.

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We stand behind the accuracy and high quality of each project. As part of our quality control process we only use qualified professional translators. For various legal documents such as a marriage certificate or university diploma you may require a certificate with the translation. We are happy to provide a certificate with any translation on request.

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