Following decades of negotiations, the European Parliament finally voted this month to allow the creation of a common EU patent system using the enhanced cooperation procedure. This is a very positive step after the long-standing deadlock on the issue cause by disagreements between Member States on the common languages to be used for the system.

Since the successful vote however, almost all Member States have expressed their willingness to sign up to the common patent system. The only spoilsports are Italy and Spain, whose insistence that they would not participate in a system that did not recognise Italian and Spanish as official languages, prompted the need to request the enhanced cooperation procedure.

This is only the second time the procedure has been used since the Lisbon Treaty came into force. It means that, where it is clear that an unanimous agreement between all Member States will be impossible, co-operation and adoption of new rules is still possible with fewer Member States involved.

It is now down to the European Commission to propose a law to establish the single patent. The unified patent system will mean that it is simpler, cheaper and more expedient for companies and individuals to get EU-wide protection for their inventions. At present it can be up to 10 times more expensive to obtain a national patent in Europe than a US patent. The system’s creation will encourage innovation and help secure the EU’s position as a competitive player in the global market ; let’s hope that Italy and Spain soon come around and reach the same conclusion.

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