LIVE UPDATE: No agreement on seat of Unified Patent Court
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| Danish Minister Ole Sohn |
"I would like to start by looking at one of the issues which I would imagine is of interest and that is the question of the patent court. Adopting the European patent reform will be a major step forward to strengthen the competitiveness of European companies. A clear signal that we are taking concrete measures to boost growth and employment in Europe. Just to give you an example, today, it costs about €36,000 to obtain a patent in Europe whereas it only costs €2,000 in the US and €600 in China and that just goes to show the extent of the challenge we are facing and how important it is that we find a solution on the patent issue so in this way we can contribute to reinvigorating growth in Europe. The Council has done a lot of the ground work. There is one remaining issue - the location of the Central Division of the first instance court. We in the Danish Presidency have worked intensively on this since we started our Presidency to try and find a solution. Unfortunately, by today we have not found a solution that everyone can support. Unfortunately, obviously we very much regret that fact but I am an optimist. There are 31 days remaining of the Danish Presidency and the Heads of State of Government have committed themselves to finding a solution by the end of June. We still believe that even if we cannot solve it today, we will manage to solve it during the Danish Presidency."
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| Commissioner Barnier |
Commissioner Barnier went on to say:
"There is also the very important and symbolic project that hundreds of thousands of companies have been waiting for - this unified patent that European business is eagerly awaiting so that it can stand on same footing as their US and Chinese coutnerparts. The number of patents that are submitted to the Chinese court increased to the tune of 30% per year so we really have no time to waste on this. Its an on-going process of course. Hopefully it will come to an end at the European Council. I submitted this proposal more than a year ago now and we hope that we will reach a result that is in line with the European economy."
Following a question from the press regarding how extensive and how long the Member States negotiated on the issue of the Unified Patent Court, Minister Sohn stated:
Further, comments that there is only there being "one last outstanding issue" obviously does not accord with the previous understanding by practitioners and indeed, Baroness Wilcox and her team (see previous AmeriKat posts here), but of course who knows what happens behind the closed doors of the unitary patent negotiations. Unless an agreement can be reached in just over 2 weeks, it is unlikely that the European Parliament's scheduled reading and vote on 13 and 14 June will proceed.
The question is, of course, are the events of December's Competitiveness Council repeating itself? Is the "outstanding issue" on the location of the Central Division another delay tactic? Given the lack of transparency in this process, we will have to await Baroness Wilcox's report of the session to the House of Commons Scrutiny Committee and hopefully, their robust reply to clarify the truth in there being only one "last outstanding issue".
"The Danish Presidency has been negotiating on this since day 1. I don't know how many days but until the very last day of the Presidency and we have been discussing this in the Council and also bi-laterally with some of the key players and its still our view that we will be able to find a solution. We have come to the point that the only outstanding point is the location of the Central Division of the first instance court and as I said at the Council meeting."Minister Sohn conintued by summarizing what the AmeriKat feels characterizes the long slow march to mediocrity in European legislative efforts:
"I appreciate the good arguments put forward by the countries who are putting forward their pitch, but obviously you try to get the person you love in life but sometimes you realize you got to live with the one you get. So people have to demonstrate that sort of flexibility here too. We are going to work really hard to achieve success by end of 2012."A further question was posed by a member of the press asking whether the Council could explain to companies why the negotiations were taking so long. In reply, Minister Sohn stated:
"Could I start by stressing the fact that I hope and believe that we will arrive to a solution by the end of June, but there aren't any good arguments for not coming up with solution, if you are trying to explain this to European industry because for every day that goes by we are piling on additional costs for European industry to obtain EU patents compared to, as I said in my introduction, the costs in US and China. So there are not any good arguments, but solutions some time take time when there is more than one person involved in negotiations. It has taken a little longer than I would have liked. But as long as our target, and its been our target since Day 1, to get this sorted before July 2012 than I think we can still meet this target. But there are no good arguments for not arriving at a solution."A question from Bloomberg asked the panel to identify the countries who were in the running for the seat of the Central Division. Reinforcing the lack of transparency regarding the entire process (see earlier post this morning), Minister Sohn stated:
"I think it would be wisest to continue the negotiations and discussions between the players within the Council and not so much in public debate because the more public it becomes the harder it is to arrive at a solution. It is well known that Germany, the UK, France and other countries are keen to obtain the court of first instance, but on the specific of the details I will tell you about at the end of June when we will hopefully have a final result."
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| Having been through this before, its now time for the AmierKat's head to slam against the table.... |
The AmeriKat imagines that many will join her in stating that her blood boiled regarding some of the statements made by Minister Sohn and Commissioner Barnier. Yet again, it seems that none of the concerns of European industry (not just the patent lawyers) regarding the current proposals have sunk in. Again we hear comments regarding the relative expense of the current system as opposed to US and China - not taking into account the realities of the patent application and grant fees in practice and the baselessness of some of these figures. Even more outrageous were the comments implying that European businesses are desperate that the currently proposed package be agreed. The AmeriKat has not spoken to ONE member from industry that wants this package - they'd rather have nothing than this, so she is unsure where this purported desperation is stemming.
Further, comments that there is only there being "one last outstanding issue" obviously does not accord with the previous understanding by practitioners and indeed, Baroness Wilcox and her team (see previous AmeriKat posts here), but of course who knows what happens behind the closed doors of the unitary patent negotiations. Unless an agreement can be reached in just over 2 weeks, it is unlikely that the European Parliament's scheduled reading and vote on 13 and 14 June will proceed.
The question is, of course, are the events of December's Competitiveness Council repeating itself? Is the "outstanding issue" on the location of the Central Division another delay tactic? Given the lack of transparency in this process, we will have to await Baroness Wilcox's report of the session to the House of Commons Scrutiny Committee and hopefully, their robust reply to clarify the truth in there being only one "last outstanding issue".
