Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Out-Law News 2 min. read

Unitary patent plans gain approval from EU ministers, UK Government says


EU competition ministers have approved plans that would allow inventors to obtain a single patent to protect their creations in 25 EU countries, according to the UK Government.

The EU Competitiveness Council, which is composed of different foreign affairs, industry and research ministers dependent on the topic of discussion, approved two proposed new regulations to help establish the unitary patent, the Government said.

The approval was necessary in order for a deal between 25 of the EU's 27 member states to establish a pan-european patent to proceed.

The regulations refer to the technical details of the patent itself and the languages that inventors will have to file unitary patent applications in, the Government said.

Although details of the competition ministers' agreements have not yet been published the European Commission has previously said that patent applications and approvals should be made available in at least one of English, French and German.

Europe-wide protection is only possible at the moment by validating a patent registered with the European Patent Office (EPO) in each individual country. To be valid in a country a patent must be translated into its language.

The European Commission and 25 EU countries, including the UK, back the current proposals for a unitary patent. They hope it will reduce the costs of patenting inventions across Europe.

"We support a European patent system which gives real benefits for business, consumers and the economy," Baroness Wilcox, UK Intellectual Property Minister said in a Government statement.

"It is vital to offer businesses the same access to patent protection in their home market of Europe, as competitors in the US, China and Japan enjoy in theirs," Baroness Wilcox said in the statement.

"A unitary patent and court system will save businesses time and money whether they are patent holders or those seeking to challenge patents. The savings to UK business are likely to be around £20 million per year in translation costs alone,” Baroness Wilcox said in the statement.

In December, 12 member states got together to push for new unifying patent protection regulations. The Lisbon Treaty permits a faction of 9 or more EU countries to use the EU's processes and structures to make agreements that bind only those countries.

Since December a further 13 countries have backed the proposals which the European Commission set out in April.

Plans to establish a court system to hear unitary patent disputes have been developed in recent months after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said in March that the creation of a pan-European Patent Court to rule on disputes would contravene EU laws.

The Court would exist outside of the judicial structures already in place and so would leave citizens potentially without recourse to action though existing EU courts, the ECJ said at the time.

Proposals from the European Commission on behalf of the 25 EU members who back the scheme need to be supported by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament in order to be put in place.

Italy and Spain have so far resisted calls to support the cooperation agreement. Spain lodged a legal challenge to the proposals earlier this month arguing that a unitary patent agreement between 25 EU countries would unfairly disadvantage Spanish inventors.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.