At their meeting in Lisbon in March 2000, the Heads of State and Government of the EU set a deadline of the end of 2001 for the establishment of the long-awaited Community patent. The Community Patent was identified as a key element in ensuring that the EU might become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world within ten years. Currently, securing a patent across the EU is considerably more expensive than in either the US or Japan. It now looks like the deadline will be impossible to meet.
Last Monday, the Internal Market Council failed to reach agreement. Frits Bolkestein, the European Commissioner in charge of the Internal Market and Taxation, commented:
"I am afraid Ministers once again demonstrated their inflexibility and their inability to put long-term considerations of enhancing the competitiveness of Europe before short-term consideration of national pride and protecting the status quo."
In August last year, a Commission proposal for the patent said that applications should only have to be translated into English, German and French. According to EUbusiness.com, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy rejected this proposal at last week's meeting. However, other countries said the patent should be published either in English only, which was rejected by France and Germany, or in each of the 11 languages of the EU, which would cancel the advantages of the Community Patent.