Is an EU Patent nearer?

A recent official statement by Michel Barnier, Member of the European Commission, and Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services, supports adopting a new route to agreement on the proposed EU Patent.

A European patent is already available but the requirement to translate into the languages of the contracting states makes the system expensive compared to say the US or Japanese system.

In late November, several Member States (Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Estonia) indicated their support to move towards enhanced cooperation, which is a way of implementing a new law without all of the EU countries participating, although they may join later. The EU Commissioner has indicated that enhanced cooperation will be supported so that an EU Patent could quickly be a reality.

In order to proceed, the EU Patent would need the participation of at least nine member states.

France, the Czech Republic and Malta all said they were prepared to explore and analyse a plan for enhanced cooperation.

The Competitiveness Council will discuss any enhanced cooperation proposal in December.

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