European Union Patent
The creation of a community patent system, which would lead to a single unitary patent in the European Union, has been debated since the 1970s, and agreement in principle was reached in 2012 between all European Union Member States except Italy and Spain. The system would be centered around the languages of the European Patent Convention and have a common court (Unified Patent Court) with exclusive competence on patent issues in the 25 countries.
On December 11, 2012, the European Parliament adopted two draft regulations on the so-called unitary patent. This patent type should help SMEs cut costs for patenting inventions and should thus increase the overall competitiveness. Besides the two regulations, a specialised court with exclusive jurisdiction concerning patent infringement and validity questions - the Unified Patent Court (UPC) - has to be established soon. Once the unitary patent and the Patent Court have become effective, inventors can request unitary patents. This new system is meant to come into effect by 2014. Many patent attorneys, however, do fear that this new regulation would result in an even more complicated and expensive patent system.
Other legal agreements have been proposed outside the European Union legal framework to reduce the cost of translation (of patents when granted) and litigation, namely the London Agreement (which entered into force in 2008) and the European Patent Litigation Agreement (EPLA) (which never entered into force).
Read more about this topic: European Patent Law
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