Validation of European patents in Finland

A European patent has been granted when the European Patent Office (EPO) has published a mention of the grant in the European Patent Bulletin. For the patent to enter into force in Finland, you have to pay a publication fee and submit the required translations to us within three months from the date of the EPO publication.

Translation

Language of translation

A translation of the patent claims and the title of the invention must be submitted to us in Finnish. You do not need to have the description translated, if it is in English in the EP patent as granted. If the description is in German or in French, it (including the drawings) must be translated into English or Finnish. If the patent holder’s own language is Swedish, the above translations can be in Swedish. A business’s own language is Swedish, if its meeting minutes are kept in Swedish.

You do not need to have the cover of the patent publication translated, as we publish a cover of our own. Corrections of a translation, or a translation of a European patent maintained in an amended form must be filed in the same language as the initial translation.

The translations must be based on the documents accompanying the EPO’s decision on the grant of a patent (communication under Rule 71(3); Open link in a new tab form 2004), the "Druckexemplar".

Formal requirements

• Write the text in a single column using 1.5 line spacing.
• Make sure you choose a font size large enough that uppercase letters are at least 0.28 cm tall (for example, Times New Roman 12 or Courier New 12).
• The margins must fall within these ranges: 2.5 to 4 cm to the left, 2 to 4 cm at the top, and 2 to 3 cm at the foot and to the right.

Form

The form for filing translations is available on our form page.
We recommend you to use the form, but it is not obligatory.

Submitting translations

You can submit translations to the PRH in the same way as other application documents: by post, by email, by secured email, by fax, online using the eOLF software, or you can bring them personally to our client service.

See contact details for the registry.

Read more about the online filing of documents.

See our contact details and visiting address.

Fees

Publication fee

A publication fee for the translation must be paid to us within three months from the granting of your patent. Check our publication fees for translations filed on paper or using the eOLF.

Bank and account number

Please pay the fees to the PRH's bank account. Go to our payment instructions.

The "National law relating to EPC" Open link in a new tab includes a list of current bank accounts of national patent offices.

Give the following details when paying a fee: patent number, name of the patent holder, and name and address of the payer.

Please make sure that you are paying the correct sum of money, and do not miss the due date.

Annual fees (renewal fees)

After a European patent has been granted, annual fees are payable to the PRH. Please be aware that the first annual fee to be paid to the PRH may fall due within the time when your patent is being validated. The annual fee procedure is the same as that for national Finnish patents. However, the first annual fee is not due for payment until the last day of the third month following the month the patent was granted (See section 70 l of the Finnish Patents Act). (Example: You file your application in February, and the grant of a patent is published in January of the following year. The due date for paying the first annual fee to the PRH is the last day of April. Thereafter, the annual fee will always be payable on the last day of February.) It is very important to pay the annual fees on time. We do not send any separate reminders. See our price list for the current fees.

Representatives

You do not necessarily need any representative (patent attorney or agent) for the validation of your European patent.

Please note, however, that a patentee not domiciled in Finland must appoint a representative residing in the European Economic Area, with authority to receive service of writs of indictment or summonses and other documents in proceedings and matters concerning the patent (See section 71 of the Patents Act). The details of the representative are recorded in our Patent Register. The representative does not have to be an authorised patent attorney. Read more.

PRH procedure

We produce a translation publication called T3 publication, which will be made available via our Patent Information Service, and announce the publication in our Patent Gazette. We do not inform the patent holder about the publication.

Documents and processing and payment information concerning European patents validated in Finland are available in our Patent Information Service.

Go to the Patent Information Service.Open link in a new tab

Further information

The booklet "National law relating to EPC" Open link in a new tab published by the European Patent Office (EPO) includes detailed information about the validation of European patents.

Go to our Legislation link for the Finnish Patents Act, Patents Decree, and Patent Regulations.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to either send an email to our advisory service or call our client service.