EU countries reach agreement on the"Community Patent"

European Union Governments have reportedly agreed to set up a single European patent.

According to the European Commission, the "community patent" which could be valid in 25 European countries once the EU expands to 10 more members in 2004 and will cost about Euro 25,000 (US$ 27,000). Though this will still be higher than in the US and Japan, it would be half the current cost of applying for a patent valid in eight EU states. The first community patents are expected to be issued within five years, once the new law has been approved by the national parliaments.

At a meeting in Brussels, EU governments reached a compromise on the two most controversial issues of the latest proposals for a community patent: the location of a patent court and the language of new document . It was agreed that the national courts would continue to rule on patent disputes until 2010, when an EU-wide court would be set up in Luxembourg. On the language, patent applicants would have to pay for the translation of the first three pages of the document, which define the legal scope of the patent in all the EU languages. The rest of the patent application would have to be either in English, French or German.