Italy and Spain in row over EU patent scheme

May 30, 2011, 15:54 GMT

Brussels - Italy and Spain have filed an appeal to the European Court of Justice against a EU-wide patent scheme in a row over it only using English, French and German as working languages.

The EU patent scheme is backed by the other 25 members but seen as a discrimination by Rome and Madrid.

'We hope that the Court ... can annul this decision, which has been one of the most divisive ones in the history of European integration,' Italian diplomat Vincenzo Grassi said during a meeting of EU competitiveness ministers.

'We cannot understand why Spanish and other languages cannot have the same status of French, English and German,' Spain's EU affairs minister Diego Lopez Garrido said.

Supporters of a single EU patent say it is time the bloc replaces the current system, which forces firms to patent their designs in every one of the bloc's 27 member states and in 23 official languages, at huge expense.

But besides the challenge from Italy and Spain, the reform has run into other legal troubles: in March the EU court struck out plans to create a special EU patent litigation tribunal, forcing the European Commission to go back to the drawing board.

Hungarian deputy economy minister Zoltan Csefelvay said the bloc's competitiveness ministers would hold special talks on June 27 in Luxembourg on the patent issue.

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