EU market commissioner pushes for unified patent system

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EU market commissioner pushes for unified patent system

As EUObserver.com reported yesterday, EU internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy has expressed his frustration over member states' inability to agree on a common European patent. He recommended EU companies should put pressure on their governments.

"Europe doesn't have the time for navel-gazing and pondering over solutions," Mr McCreevy is cited.

The European Commission backs the complaints of companies from Europe and from the rest of the world about the European patent system being too slow and too expensive.

As repeatedly reported the current legislation demands that patentees have to provide translations for patents into all official languages. The number of official languages will be 23 in January, when Irish(Gaelic), Romanian and Bulgarian ascend to that status.

According to McCreevy, European businesses and citizens "are already losing out because businesses cannot afford to protect their ideas from being used freely by others."

Earlier this week (4 December), EU industry ministers meeting in Brussels were unable to agree on how to move ahead, although they acknowledge they have to.

Yesterday babelport.com reported about an article published on legalweek.com stating that the London Agreement/ European Patent Litigation Agreement, which would pave the road toward a unified European patent system requiring only one language, provided it's either English, French or German.

Losing the market of patent translation would, however, mean a harsh loss for many language service providers in Europe.

Read Patent Translations threatened?

Source: http://euobserver.com/9/23056