Patent law of the European Union

"The most noticeable characteristic of the present state of the patent law in the EU is its dualism, i.e. the coexistence of two different ways for obtaining patents with the same effects, namely limited to the territory of the Member State for which they are granted. (...) a Community patent, i.e. a patent which would cover the entire territory of the EU, have the same effects throughout the EU, which could be revoked centrally, etc., is not available because a great number of EU Member States have not ratified the 1989 Agreement Relating to Community Patents."

"The continuing decentralized administration of European patents in as many as 17 States, in spite of the Single Market and the Maastricht Treaties, is an anachronism for which applicants have to pay dearly. Enforcement is another area where European patent holders must still live with disadvantages unknown to their US and Japanese competitors in their own countries.”

References and further reading

• Braendli, The Future of the European Patent System, 26 IIC 813-829 (1995)
• Bossung, The Return of European Patent Law to the European Union, 27 IIC 287-315 (1996)
• Straus, J., The Present State of the Patent System in the European Union as Compared with the Situation in the United States of America and Japan, European Commission, Luxembourg, 1997. ISBN 92-826-9555-7