There's an interesting article in this months edition of iam-magazine in which Joff Wild interviews David Kappos (VP IP law at IBM) about a proposed new type of patent right which he says Europe should adopt.
The right, called the European Interoperability Patent (EIP) would be an EU-wide patent granted by the EPO. It would not be possible to obtain injunctions for infringement of EIPs, but instead, any person can obtain a license of right (in return for a reasonable royalty). Infringement and royalty disputes would be determined by the courts. The EIP would not replace current patents, but sit alongside them as another option.
David claims that the EIP would significantly reduce costs and be a boon to many types of company. In Europe, there would not be such a pressing need to get translations for each country, and prosecution and enforcement could be done centrally.
The Community Patent, in a slightly watered down form...
Some problems highlighted by Joff:
- Companies in the life sciences sector would not be happy with this right.
- How can SMEs grow when bigger rivals always have the opportunity to take a license of right to their inventions (under the EIP)?
David's responses to both are basically that it wouldn't replace any existing right.
David also points out that companies which did not use the EIP, but still played in open standards and interoperability would have some explaining to do (ie they would be seen as free-riding off everyone else's innovation).
Some brief thoughts:
Still, an important discussion which needs to continue. What do you think?
You can join the discussion about the strategic implications of this move at my blog, IP ThinkTank.
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