McGreevy Aims for European Patent Court

In a speech to a Conference entitled "The Benefits of the Single Market" on October 13, 2006, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Charles McCreevy provided his views on the European Patent system:

Earlier this year I launched a consultation of interested parties on future patent policy in Europe. That process showed that industry clearly supports the Commission's efforts to simplify the patent system in Europe and make it more effective. There are two issues – languages (or the cost of translation) and jurisdictional issues. Industry is not enamoured by the compromise reached by the Council in 2003 on the Community Patent in terms of the proposed solution in respect of language and the jurisdictional system because they don't achieve the cost reductions and the simplification of the system that industry wants. In parallel, there is a strong call for the improvement of the existing European patent system, established by the Munich Convention, by the successful conclusion of the European Patent Litigation Agreement on jurisdiction and by ratification of the London Agreement on the language regime. Before the end of this year I will be proposing that the Commission adopt a communication and action plan aimed at tackling the patent issues all in one approach. In particular, I want to tackle the jurisdictional issue so that we don’t have different courts in different countries delivering divergent interpretations on the same patented invention, so that we avoid businesses having to incur the expense involved in having effective patent protection across the Member States. We cannot aspire to being the most competitive economy in the world if we don't find workable solutions to patent application and protection.