At this time (february 2011), the european parlement is discussing a text for a "unitary patent" which will cover those EU countries which will join the initiative:
www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A7-2011-0021+0+DOC+XML+V0//ENAbout 11/12 EU countries are backing the initiative.
In december 2010, two EU countries blocked the EU patent initiative covering all the 27 EU countries (Italy and Spain) for linguistic reasons because the EU patent would have been granted only in English, French, or German (with claims in the three languages as is currently the case for the European Patent).
The future unitary patent would apply to the territory of the participating member countries and be cancelled before a single patent courts system for all the participating member countries. To setup the whole schem may require at least between 3 to 7 years. Even if 10 to 15 countries join, I expect the cost of a patent to be a multiple of a USPTO patent in terms of various Office fees, remaining translation requirements, and maintenance fees.
However, you would have an interesting schem in term of patent protection with the current EP patent covering initially upon filing the 38+ member states of the European Patent Convention (EPC) and upon grant of the EP patent, you would have the protection of the unitary patent over 10 to 15+ participating countries scattered over the EU, and any other non-participating individual EPC state protection provided that you comply with that individual state requirement (translations, yearly maintenance fee).
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Topic: EU patents (Read 2910 times)
