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Unitary Patent EU: Deal almost done
The EU Council of Ministers of early December 2011 has reached agreement on most issues of the Unitary European Patent. The only hurdle to be taken is the choice of the headquarters of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) which will be the cornerstone of the new system. London, Paris and Munich are still in the running. The Appeal Court will be located in Luxemburg, while Lisbon and Ljubljana will host an arbitration and mediation institute. The aim is to conclude the Convention for establishing the UPC during the first half of 2012, which will conclude a laborious process of many decades.
In an optimistic scenario, the unitary patent could be in force in 2014. This is the minimum period needed for the participating countries to ratify the UPC convention, for the European Parliament and Council to finalise the EU Regulations of the Unitary patent and its translation arrangement, and to set up the courts and their procedures. Between ine and thirteen countries, including the UK, France and Germany, would be sufficient to get the system going.
If all works well, the European patent system will become considerably more transparent and cost-effective. The suggestion, spread by certain stakeholders and governments, that obtaining a European patent would become 70% or even 80% less expensive, is somewhat misleading: there will be no significant changes in the granting procedure, which is already a centralised process performed by the European Patent Office in Munich and The Hague. On the other hand, patentees validating their patents in most or all of the EU countries will certainly save money under the new system. In addition, enforcement and commercial use of the patent will become easier. The European patent system as a whole will become more attractive and will give Europe a much needed boost in its competition with the other continents.