The committees of Brussels do not normally aim to shock – their often laboured way of working usually means news from a meeting leaks well before its official announcement is made. So it was with some surprise that the world of intellectual property (IP) reacted to the news that a community patent and an accompanying court was finally to be set up after 30 years of trying.
Having struck a remarkable deal, support for a single, European Union (EU)-wide patent has been stirred. However, a lot has still to be resolved and the devil is most definitely in the detail.
