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20/12/11
Unitary EU Patent moves to next stage
The Legal Affairs Committee has approved a package of measures relating to the Unitary EU Patent.
The Unitary EU Patent has been approved by the Legal Affairs Committee of the EU Parliament. There are three issues that have been agreed, relating to the existence of the EU Patent, the language regime, and the Unified Patents Court. It isn't finalised yet. It has to go to a full parliamentary vote, and there is much criticism of the details. The intention is that it will proceed for 25 of the 27 EU members (Spain and Italy aren't currently in agreement). With regard to language, translation will be in to any of the three official languages (French, German or English), with compensation being provided for translation from other EU languages. There will be a central court (somewhere!), to decide infringement and validity (on what basis?). LES has joined with other professional bodies in requesting renegotiation of details. The presently proposed arrangement, although said to be much cheaper for applicants, is not thought to be advantageous at the enforcement stage.
