On 13 April 2011 the European Commission adopted The Single Market Act which contains twelve instruments for re-launching the European Union's Single Market in 2012. One of these instruments intends to deliver unitary patent protection in Europe. The aim is to grant the first unitary EU patents in 2013.
National Validation
Currently, although there is a unitary patent prosecution system implemented by the European Patent Office, following the grant of a European patent the applicant has to request validation of that patent in each state where patent protection is sought. Even after the implementation of the London Agreement in 2008, which reduced the translation requirements for granted European patents in 15 member states, there is still a considerable financial and administrative burden for applicants wishing to validate a granted European patent in a number of countries. It is estimated that the cost of validating a European patent in 13 member states is €12,500, rising to €32,000 for validation in all of the 27 member states. This often dissuades applicants from validating granted European patents in many countries.
Efforts toward a Unitary Patent
The implementation of a unitary European patent has been discussed for many years. Recently, significant efforts have been made since 2000, but without success. The lack of success has often been down to a lack of agreement regarding the arrangements for translating granted patents.
A breakthrough came in December 2010 when 12 member states asked the European Commission, under a mechanism known as "enhanced cooperation", to establish a system of unitary patent protection in those member states willing to participate. Following the Commission's proposal in December 2010 a further 13 member states joined the cooperation, with only Spain and Italy currently outstanding from the 27 EU member states.
A blow for the unitary system came in March 2011 when the Court of Justice of the European Union declared that an envisaged European Patent Court applicable to only some of the EU's member states would be incompatible with current EU treaties. However, the European Commission hopes to offer a solution to this problem.
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