Ministers launch EU patent scheme despite legal worries

Mar 10, 2011, 14:55 GMT

Brussels - European Union governments decided Thursday to launch legislative proceedings to create an EU-wide patent scheme, despite the bloc's top court having questioned the legal basis for the plans.

Those who want to patent their designs in the EU currently have to apply for a separate patent in every one of the bloc's 27 member states and in 23 official languages. To streamline the system, Britain, France and Germany have led a push for an EU-wide scheme.

At a meeting of EU industry ministers in Brussels, 25 out of 27 EU countries agreed to the idea, with Italy and Spain backing out because patent proceedings were set to be in either English, French or German, excluding the national languages of the other countries.

'The use of an enhanced cooperation has been requested by 25 out of 27 EU member states,' an EU statement indicated, referring to the procedure that allows countries to launch initiatives, even if not all EU members agree to them.

That decision authorized the EU's executive, the European Commission, to draft detailed legislation on the scheme, which would then need to be approved by participating EU states and, in part, by the European Parliament - which could take around two years.

The process could be delayed further as, on Tuesday, the EU Court of Justice ruled that the idea to create a new tribunal outside of EU jurisdiction to handle patent litigation cases was in breach of the bloc's treaties.

That particular problem is separate from the language issue posed by Italy and Spain. But some diplomats warned that the two countries could veto amendments necessary to bring the patent litigation legislation in line with the EU court opinion, unless they won concessions on the use of languages.

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