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March 10, 2011

Consensus, Mostly

After decades of dickering, 25 of 27 European Union countries voted to have a unitary patent regime. Spain and Italy opposed, because patent applications wouldn't have to be translated into Spanish and Italian, only English, French and German. Cost is the advantage of a one-stop EU patent. Presently, a Euro patent for 13 countries runs about 20,000 euros, about 70% eaten up in translations. The European Court of Justice (ECOJ) has already rained on the parade of creating a new patent enforcement court, as incompatible with existing law that partitions judicial power between national courts and the ECOJ.

Posted by Patent Hawk at March 10, 2011 1:46 PM | International