Progress Stalls On Community Patent

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

04 December 2003

Following a meeting last week, it emerged that the EU's Competitiveness Council has failed to reach agreement on outstanding issues with regard to the long-awaited Community Patent, which aims to speed and ease the process of obtaining an Europe-wide patent.

Currently, the European Patent Office grants patents covering the whole of the EU from a single application, but in order to be properly enforceable in all member states, the patent may need to be translated into all of the relevent languages.

Additionally, obtaining an EU-wide patent currently costs in the region of 50,000 euros, which is roughly five times more expensive than obtaining a patent in the United States or Japan. The Community Patent is set to halve the cost, coming in at 25,000 euros.

Although at a meeting in March, the Council of Ministers agreed upon a number of the principles underlying the Community Patent, including the language requirements, costs, distribution of fees, and the role of national patent offices, the time period for the filing of translations of the patent application with the EPO was left unresolved, with the intention of an agreement being reached at the Competitiveness Council meeting last week.

According to reports, negotiations on the matter are ongoing. However, EU members such as the UK, Germany, and France are calling for a 2 year time frame for the filing of translations, whereas others have suggested that a period of six months is sufficient.

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