Languages, Fees and the InternationalScope of Patenting

This paper analyzes firms’ choices regarding the geographic scope of patentprotection within the European patent system. We develop an econometric modelat the patent level to quantify the impact of office fees and translation costs onfirms’ decision to validate a patent in a particular country once it has been grantedby the EPO. These costs have been disregarded in previous studies. The resultssuggest that both translation costs and fees for validation and renewals have astrong influence on the behavior of applicants. The estimates are then employed tosimulate the impact of the London Protocol, a recent policy reform which reducestranslation requirements in the European patent system. National validations ofpatents granted by the EPO are estimated to increase by 29%....