Via a Tweet from the IPKat's friend Axel Horns comes news of an EU Council Decision which, as Axel puts it, is "inching towards enhanced co-operation in area of creation of unitary patent protection". It says
"1. On 16 December 2010, the Commission submitted to the Council a proposal for a Council Decision authorising enhanced cooperation in the area of the creation of unitary patent protection.
2. At the meeting of the Permanent Representatives Committee on 7 February 2011, all delegations (including the Commission) but two agreed on the text of the draft Council Decision to be transmitted to the European Parliament for its consent.
3. In the light of the above, the Council is invited to decide, as an "A" item of one of its forthcoming meetings, to transmit the text of the proposed Decision, as set out in 5538/11, to the European Parliament in order to obtain the latter's consent in accordance with Article 329(1) of TFEU, the Italian and Spanish delegations voting against".
You can read the document in full
here.
