Commission will fund translation technology development for Community patent

More details surrounding the proposals to automate translations of Community patents have been revealed in a discussion document prepared by the Slovenian government, which currently holds the EU presidency.
According to this “a significant number of Member States” support “providing for a Community patent with translation performed by a central service" but are also concerned to ensure the "good quality of such translations”. The central service envisaged is based around an automated system that would translate “the entire patent specification, including the claim”. Such translations would have no legal effect, but would be for information purposes only. The legal document would be the original patent, which would be in one of the three official languages of the EPO – English, French or German.
In the event of a dispute, if requested the patent holder would have to provide “a full translation of the patent and of supporting documentation in the language of the Member State where the other party is domiciled or where the alleged infringement took place”.
The document recognises that a considerable investment will be needed in order to get automated translation of an acceptable quality and states that, given the importance of the Community patent to Europe, development work “could be supported by Community funding to the extent necessary”. However, there is no mention of how long it may take for the technology to come on line, or who decides whether it is up to scratch or not. I guess that both these issues will be seized upon by people that, for whatever reason, might oppose the plans.
Interestingly, the same document also discusses the way in which fees relating to the Community patent might be distributed in the future, recognising that this too has been a major sticking point in negotiations up to now. The cost of a renewal would be the equivalent to the amount currently paid on the average European patent – in other words, one that covers five EU member states. The EPO would get 50% of the money and the remainder would be distributed among the national patent offices of the member states according to weighted criteria. On the final page of the document, there is a table that estimates what each country would get - with Germany, France, the UK and Italy being the major beneficiaries.