The long-delayed agreement to create a single European patent has this month received a downbeat reaction, with intellectual property (IP) advisers arguing that legal opposition to a European Union-wide patent court will hamstring the venture.
Ministers from 25 EU states on 10 March approved the creation of a single European patent – a unitary title set to operate across much of the EU. The move has been hailed by supporters as a step forward in the decades-long fight to streamline Europe’s patchwork patent regime.
