At their meeting in Lisbon in March 2000, the Heads of State and
Government of the EU set a deadline of the end of 2001 for the
establishment of the long-awaited Community patent. The Community
Patent was identified as a key element in ensuring that the EU
might become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based
economy in the world within ten years. Currently, securing a patent
across the EU is considerably more expensive than in either the US
or Japan. It now looks like the deadline will be impossible to
meet.
Last Monday, the Internal Market Council failed to reach
agreement. Frits Bolkestein, the European Commissioner in charge of
the Internal Market and Taxation, commented:
"I am afraid Ministers once again
demonstrated their inflexibility and their inability to put
long-term considerations of enhancing the competitiveness of Europe
before short-term consideration of national pride and protecting
the status quo."
In August last year, a Commission proposal for the patent said
that applications should only have to be translated into English,
German and French. According to EUbusiness.com, Spain, Portugal,
Greece and Italy rejected this proposal at last week's meeting.
However, other countries said the patent should be published either
in English only, which was rejected by France and Germany, or in
each of the 11 languages of the EU, which would cancel the
advantages of the Community Patent.
