10 December 2012Patents

Battistelli bullish on Unitary Patent

Benoît Battistelli, president of the European Patent Office (EPO), is confident that an agreement on the so-called Unitary Patent is imminent, and that the project will be a boon to the European intellectual property system.

Battistelli, speaking to journalists at the IP Summit in Brussels on Friday, said that while he “cannot be sure” that there will be an agreement on the patent and its associated court system, he expected MEPs to agree draft legislation soon.

The proposed patent would provide protection throughout signatory member states, while disputes would be handled by specialist patent courts across the EU.

Battistelli said that he “can imagine some fears” over the system, but underlined that it should be more economical and provide more reliable protection.

“For the same protection, [the Unitary Patent] will represent a [cost] reduction of 70 percent,” according to estimates, he said, while the unified litigation system will remove “the risk of a conflict of different decisions”.

Battistelli was also keen to allay fears that regional divisions of the unified patent court could lead to forum shopping and a patentee-friendly system, especially because the “court of appeal will be the same and will create the jurisprudence for the system.”

He did acknowledge, however, that “it is very important that the first decisions of the European Patent Court will be strongly justified,” and that it will be “important to select with care the judges, and then to train them.”

Some practitioners have raised concerns about the cost of the patent, especially because most current European patents are not designated in all EU member states, so the cost savings of a unitary patent may not be as substantial as assumed.

But Battistelli is confident that “if we propose a simpler, less costly system, people will choose it,” though the final fees have yet to be decided, and the patent will have to be self-financing.

And because the EPO will process the Unitary Patent in exactly the same way as a current European Patent (up to just before grant), there should be no unforeseen difficulties in that part of the process.

While there are still things that need to be ironed out, Battistelli is optimistic that the Unitary Patent will become a reality. “I am convinced that it is a good project,” he said.

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