Progress on common EU patent with agreement on site of Unified Patent Court

The European Council has finally reached agreement on the location of a Unified Patent Court (UPC) for the European Union, Commissioner for Internal Markets and Services Michael Barnier announced on Friday, saying this was a decisive step towards the creation of a unitary patent and a common patent court in Europe. Efforts to create a common patent applicable across all European countries have been made since the 1960s but for a number of reasons have never been successful.

After the political agreement reached at the Competitiveness Council in December 2011, the negotiations on the entire package had been stalled due to a disagreement on the location of the seat of the central division of the UPC. Friday’s compromise agreement places the seat of the UPC's Central Division in Paris, France. Specialized clusters of the UPC’s central division will also be set up - one in London, UK, the other in Munich, Germany.

“The reform will create a simpler application process and considerably reduce the costs for obtaining patent protection. All future unitary patents will eventually be available in all official EU languages, thus ensuring the dissemination of knowledge and benefiting inventors. I hope that Spain and Italy will also join the new regime soon, the Commissioner stated.