McCreevy sets patents target

The European Commission is hoping to make progress towards an EU-wide area for patent litigation as a first step towards a community patent in the second half of this year.

The Commission agreed on Tuesday (3 April) a new strategy for giving the EU a single patent regime and ending a 20-year stand-off among member states. The strategy involves a two-stage approach. First, patent litigation would be handled by a network of tribunals in member states with a centralised appeals court based in Luxembourg. The tribunals and the court would have common rules of procedure. A second stage building on the experience of the first would see the introduction of a community patent. A senior Commission official said that looking at the issue of jurisdiction would be a way of "trying to create bridges leading to a community patent".

The official said that if ministers endorsed the approach in June formal proposals could be put forward under the Portuguese presidency in the second half of 2007. He said that the German presidency had already agreed to discuss the strategy in Council of Ministers working groups and that there could be a debate on the approach at a meeting of competitiveness ministers in June. EU leaders could also give further impetus to the debate in December or March 2008, the official suggested.

The German presidency has welcomed the initiative while remaining guarded about where it might lead, prompting suspicions that Berlin is reluctant to move to a community patent at a later stage.

"We are very grateful to the Commission and we will take up work at expert level," said a German diplomat, adding: "The most important parameter for us is how does it improve the situation for innovative companies."

The Commission’s move was welcomed by the EU’s information technology companies. Mark MacGann, director-general of EICTA which represents 55 multinational IT firms and national associations, said: "We are very supportive of the Commission’s approach. It’s time to move forward."

But the divisive issue of languages for filing application and handling litigation has been ducked for now. It will only be dealt with in the later stage as part of discussions on setting up a community patent.

The EU has been split for almost two decadesover how to create a single patent regime to enable its innovators to compete with the rest of the world. Efforts to agree a community patent failed in 2002 in the face of objections from Germany and Spain over reducing the number of languages for filing patent applications. Last year Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy tried to convince member states to sign up to the European Patent Litigation Agreement which would introduce a common system for contesting and defending patents. But this was blocked by France.

McCreevy said in a speech in Berlin last week that all member states agreed on the need to agree a streamlined regime to enable companies to compete as getting patents was eleven times more expensive in the EU than in the United States and 13 times more expensive than in Japan. He called for an end to the current "litigation patchwork" where patents had to be defended in several jurisdictions, adding to legal uncertainty and leaving firms facing huge legal bills if they have to defend patents in several places at once. The Commission estimates that the average litigation case costs €300,000-€500,000 but any stage in the process can cost as much as €1.5 million. The cost acts as a bar to companies defending their inventions.

The European Commission is hoping to make progress towards an EU-wide area for patent litigation as a first step towards a community patent in the second half of this year.