Upon the grant of a European patent, the patent specification is published in the European Patent Bulletin in either German, English, or French.
If your patent specification (and not just the claims) is published there in German, no validation is needed. For patent specifications published in English and French, you are required to submit a translation into German to the Austrian Patent Office and pay a publication fee. The European patent is then considered validated for Austria. The translation is subsequently published in the Austrian Patent Gazette.
Why do I need to validate my European patent?
If a European patent is not validated within three months of the publication of the notice of grant in the European Patent Bulletin, the European patent ceases to have effect in Austria. The purpose of the validation requirement is to ensure that the Austrian public can obtain information about the scope of protection of European patents in the country’s official language.
Please note: regardless of whether a European patent needs to be validated or not, annual fees must be paid to maintain protection.
How much does it cost to validate a European patent in Austria?
The publication fee for the translation of the patent specification or a correction is €180 for online filing and €200 for paper filing (including the document fee).
Starting with the 16th page of a patent specification, an additional publication fee of €135 is payable for every 15 pages. Sequence listings that constitute a separate part of the description are calculated as having no more than 400 pages.
You can validate your European patent using these online forms
Validate European Patents
Choose between publishing the translation with the appointment of a representative OR entering a representative in the patent register
European Translations – Supplementary Filings
Supplementary documents for translations previously filed online
Payment for European translations
Here you can pay the publication fee for translations that have already been submitted