EU patent takes a step closer
The proposals (unitary patent, language regime and unified patent court) to be treated as a package
The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has approved a mandate to open formal negotiations with national governments to agree to create an EU patent ‘package’ to cut costs for firms and boost the EU's competitiveness.
The Parliament's rapporteurs, who will negotiate with national governments, decided to treat the three proposals (unitary patent, language regime and unified patent court) as a package, meaning none will be agreed without the others and will demand that the three laws enter into force at the same time.
The aim of creating an EU patent is to reduce current patenting costs by up to 80%, improving the competitive position of EU firms vis-à-vis their counterparts in the US and Japan, and to avoid the legal confusion created when dealing with differing national patent laws.
The first piece of legislation in the package is a regulation setting up a unitary patent protection system, which should allow inventors from countries currently outside the procedure to apply for an EU patent.
The proposed regime for translating EU patents would make them available in German, English and French, although applications could be submitted in any EU language, with translation costs being compensated.
EU countries participating in the procedure to create a unified patent court so as to reduce costs and uncertainty caused by differing national interpretations are currently negotiating an international agreement.
Klaus-Heiner Lehne (EPP, DE), rapporteur for the last piece of the package, will seek to ensure that the litigation system is efficient, by giving it a decentralised structure, clear procedural rules and judges selected for their competence.
The legislation is being dealt under the so-called ‘enhanced cooperation procedure’, which allows groups of countries to integrate their policies. Spain and Italy have so far opted out of work on the patent proposal, mainly over language issues.