Green light for the Community Patent

Earlier this week, we reported on the CJEU's decision that a unified patents court, in the form proposed, would not be compatible with EU treaties.

Today, the Competitiveness Council decided to "give the green light to start work on the enhanced cooperation" of the unified patent. This was described by Zoltán Cséfalvay, Hungarian Minister of State for Strategic Affairs during the press conference following the decision as a huge breakthrough with the new patent being cheaper, simpler and avoiding the fragmentation that exists under the present patent system. Hungary, of course, currently hold the Presidency of the EU.

Although there is a lot of work to do, the Community Patent is now a step closer to reality, albeit that it will only cover 25 of the 27 Member States (Spain and Italy being left out for now).  Given the CJEU's decision on 8 March, though, it remains to be seen how the Community Patent will be litigated and whether the absence of a unified patent litigation system might affect the use of the Community Patent by Industry.  It will be interesting to see how this long running saga develops over the coming months and years.

Lawyers Saufung Ma, Matthew Royle