It’s now or never for EU patent reform - Commission

07 December 2011

James Nurton, London and Emma Barraclough, Brussels

If EU member states ever want to get a deal on the patent reform package they need to put their negotiating cards on the table, a senior Commission official said today

Pierre Delsaux, deputy director general of the European Commission’s DG Internal Market and Services, told Premier Cercle's IP Week in Brussels that the sticking points are the location of the central division of the unified patent court, the financial contributions member states will need to make, and the transitional arrangements.

Five countries want to host the central court: the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary.

Delsaux warned that if they do not reach a deal before the end of the year, he believed there will never be a unitary patent system in Europe.

At the moment, he said, member states are arguing over these issues without indicating which are crucial to them and...

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