One Step Closer to a Single European Patent System

After several rounds of negotiations, the Swedish Presidency announced last week that the EU Patent System was one step closer.

We are of course very pleased to see that the dossier is moving forward; and we have continuously praised the Swedish Presidency for their great efforts. A good patent protection is essential to achieving the levels of innovation that European SMEs deserve.  And it appears many agree:

“The EU patent will make it much easier and cheaper to protect innovations in the EU. This will give European industry better opportunities to compete on the global market,” said Minister for Trade Ewa Björling.

“Today’s agreement cannot be overestimated. It comes at a moment when it is most needed,” said the EU’s industry commissioner, Gunter Verheugen, after the deal was struck.

Creating an ideal environment for EU innovative SMEs, including a strong unified IP protection system, would help to improve the overall innovation performance of Europe, which still lags behind that of the US and Japan. But conversations about a one-stop shop for patent protection across Europe are almost as old as the European Union itself so we can’t help but wonder, are we really there?

The Swedish Presidency and the European Commission considered Friday’s development a very positive breakthrough. And it is, but will the next EU Presidency to be led by Spain be willing to take to take over?  Will they leave language differences aside? What role will the European Court of Justice and the individual Member States play in shaping the agreement?

Friday’s agreement was an important step, but there are still outstanding issues that shouldn’t be overlooked before we sing victory.