Friday 12 February 2010

No real progress

The current issue of Informa's 10-times-a-year Patent World magazine has an article, "Another False Dawn" by Alan Johnson (Bristows), which will do little to cheer up those desperate souls who daily scour the entrails of European patent litigation for signs of meaningful progress. The article recalls the proud proclamation which was trumpeted last year:
On 4 December 2009 an EU press release was issued which was grandly entitled “Patents: EU achieves political breakthrough on an enhanced patent system". The press release went on: “The Council has today unanimously adopted conclusions on an enhanced patent system in Europe. The package agreed covers major elements to bring about a single EU patent and establish a new patent court in the EU. Both together will make it less costly for businesses to protect innovative technology and make litigation more accessible and predictable. Today’s agreement will pave the way for solving the outstanding issues to achieve a major reform of the EU patent system in the near future".
The story behind the spin is however that "little real progress has been made on the creation of an improved European patent system". Don't we know it!

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