The European Union patent (EU patent), formally European Patent with unitary effect, also known as the Community patent, European Community Patent, or EC patent and sometimes abbreviated as COMPAT, is a proposed patent legislation in the European Union, which would allow individuals and companies to obtain a unitary patent throughout the European Union, with the exception of Spain and Italy. During the European Council of 28–29 June 2012, agreement was reached on its provisions between 25 of the 27 member states of the European Union. Italy and Spain had decided not to take part as a result of the proposed language scheme, which uses English, German and French at the exclusion of other languages.
The proposed EU patent is closely related, but different from the European patent, which is granted under the 38-state European Patent Convention. European patents, once granted, become a "bundle of nationally enforceable patents", in the states which are designated by the applicant. The EU patent would, once established, be designated after granting of the European patent, with validity in all participating countries. The system reduces translation requirements (by focusing on the three languages of the European patent: German, English and French), maintenance fees (with a single fee for the whole area) and provides for judicial procedures for a court with effect in all countries.
Read more about European Union Patent: Implementation, Unified Patent Court, Costs
Famous quotes containing the words european, union and/or patent:
“It has become necessary to call the attention of European governments to a fact which is apparently so insignificant that the governments seem not to notice it. The fact is this: an entire people is being annihilated. Where? In Europe. Are there witnesses? One witness, the entire world. Do the governments see it? No.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“The rage for road building is beneficent for America, where vast distance is so main a consideration in our domestic politics and trade, inasmuch as the great political promise of the invention is to hold the Union staunch, whose days already seem numbered by the mere inconvenience of transporting representatives, judges and officers across such tedious distances of land and water.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The cigar-box which the European calls a “lift” needs but to be compared with our elevators to be appreciated. The lift stops to reflect between floors. That is all right in a hearse, but not in elevators. The American elevator acts like the man’s patent purge—it works”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)