The Economist has a great article on why innovative European companies, particularly small and medium-sized ones, need a single patent office and a unified court system for defending their inventions. The article even quotes a couple of ACT's European members.
According to a recent paper, “Lost property: The European patent
system and why it doesn’t work”, by Bruno Van Pottelsberghe, a senior
research fellow at Bruegel, a think tank, it can cost between four and
ten times more to get a patent in Europe than in America, Japan, China
or South Korea, depending on how many countries are involved (see
chart). The bill is bloated by duplicate administrative fees and
translation charges which add no value to the patent, says Mr Van
Pottelsberghe, who was the EPO’s chief economist in 2005-07.
The burden falls most heavily on small to medium-sized firms.
Overall, according to the European Commission, the lack of a unified
patent system is one reason why Europe’s small and medium-sized
technology firms fail to grow as quickly as those in America, Asia and
elsewhere. One small firm, Sensaris, which makes wireless sensors to
detect air pollution, has decided to make a filing under the
international Patent Cooperation Treaty, which is a way of putting down
a marker without the expense of a full patent application. Sensaris
cannot afford the €30,000 ($43,000) or more it would cost to get
patents for three or four countries in Europe, says Michael Setton, its
founder. “We have decided not to pursue patents in Europe because the
system makes it effectively impossible for us to defend them,” says
Fernando Guerrero, the Spanish co-founder of Solid Quality Mentors, a
multinational technical consulting firm. Foreign lawsuits, he says, are
unpredictable and can be very expensive.