GLOSSARY (L)

A patent application has ‘lapsed’ when it has granted but the the subsequent renewal fees have not been paid. Therefore, the patent is no longer ‘in force’.

LICENCE

The granting of permission by a rights holder allowing another party to do something that otherwise they would not be able to, e.g. a licence to sell a product under a granted patent.

LICENCE OF RIGHT

A patent may be endorsed “Licence of Right”.  This indicates that anybody can apply for, and must be granted, a licence on reasonable terms to make or use an invention.  A holder of a patent may volunteer to have this endorsement added, and in doing so reduces the renewal fees payable by half.  A Licence of Right endorsement may also be added to a patent if the invention has not been made available to the public on reasonable terms within three years of grant.

LONDON AGREEMENT

Formally the Agreement on the application of Article 65 of the Convention on the Grant of European Patents, the London Agreement is an agreement aimed at reducing the translation costs of European patents when being validated post-grant. Prior to its introduction, European patents had to be translated into the or an official language of each country in which validation being carried out. Failure to file a translation resulted in the patent being deemed withdrawn. The London Agreement simplified the translation requirements, resulting in significantly lower translation costs in a number of contracting states.

The London Agreement has thus introduced four categories of translation requirements, including: those states dispensing with the need for a translation altogether, states requiring a full translation into the official language of the state, states requiring translation of the claims only and states requiring translation of the description into English and the claims into the official language of the state.