EU komt niet tot een akkoord inzake het Europees octrooi

The European Union has failed to end the linguistic battle that has delayed the launch of a single European patent.

The single pan-European patent was first proposed by the European Commission in 2000 as a way to centralize the process and reduce translation costs. This project, allowing the linguistic and legal harmonization of the patents, would be a great achievement in terms of harmonization and industrial policy as well as a key instrument for European business whose innovation capacity depends on the existence of a reliable and accessible system of patent protection throughout the internal market.

Unlike the United States, filing a patent and protecting inventions in Europe is quite expensive, owning to strong patent rights. Under the current system, inventors must acquire patents in individual countries, a process that can cost up to 20,000 euros, including 14,000 euros in translation fees. This compares with 1,850 dollars which investors spend to protect their work in the United States.

And it is all the more expensive when it comes to trials involving several European countries. Beyond money issues, protecting a patent or suing another company could turn into a nightmare, since the procedure involves several translations and related transactional costs, as well as many judiciary courts coming to different conclusions.

The European Commission proposed that EU patents would be granted in one of the official languages of the European Patent Office, being English, French and German. No further translations would have to be provided by the applicant and no validations in the Member States would have to take place to enforce the EU patent throughout the EU.

Italy and Spain blocked the plan as they objected to making English, French and German the three official languages for a single European patent, which would cover the 27-nation EU.

European industry ministers were striving to finally end the deadlock at a special meeting in Brussels, but a diplomatic source said Italy and Spain remained stubbornly opposed. Unanimity is required for this sensitive matter.