Patently Superb – Major EU Intellectual Property Development Contributes to UK Growth

The following is a guest post by Thomas Whitehead, Trade Policy Advisor at the British Embassy in Washington covering information communications technology and intellectual property policy.

As innovation, talent, creativity, and knowledge become ever bigger drivers of the US and the UK economies, intellectual property (IP) is increasingly important as a means for delivering prosperity and growth. This means that we need IP systems that are efficient, effective, interoperable, and most of all, easy for innovative individuals and businesses to use, so that they are able to protect (and profit from) their ideas.

Last week, after over a decade of deliberations, the European Council agreed on a new single patent and a new patent court that will be simultaneously based in London, Paris, and Munich. This achievement is a huge success for the UK and for business. Under the single patent, innovators will save time, effort, and money by not having to register their inventions in each of the 27 member states. In fact, the move to a single EU patent could save businesses an average of £20,000 per patent in translation and validation costs.

We know from research that small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) make a significant contribution to jobs and growth. SMEs are engines for innovation in our economies, but they often lack the resources to navigate an expensive and time-consuming patent approval process. The new single patent and unified court will make it easier for both big and small businesses to take economic advantage of IP. But, the biggest benefit to businesses comes from the creation of a single patent court that will save companies the expense of enforcing their patents separately in each country across Europe. A single ruling on validity or infringement will now apply across the participating member states. The UK Court, based in London, will have responsibility for litigation in the pharmaceutical sector, which has UK turnover of over £31 billion and employs over 77,000 Britons.

Whilst working to improve the IP system in Europe, the UK has also been cooperating with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and IP authorities around the world to fix the functioning of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which enables global patent protection via a single application. In May 2012 we submitted, along with USPTO, a document called “PCT 20/20” to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s working group on the PCT. That document laid out our vision for a global patent system that is streamlined and cost effective while providing increased transparency and improved quality. We’re working with partner countries to promote multilateral adoption of these recommendations, but we’re also encouraging others to go ahead and implement some of the measures unilaterally where possible. Given the magnitude of the PCT, even incremental changes are worth pursuing.

It’s crucial that we continue to work towards more efficient, reliable, and predictable IP regimes around the world. If our aim is to enable innovation and economic growth, this means cooperating to make sure that we get the details right and that our approaches are customer-oriented.

As UK Business Secretary Vince Cable said just after the new patent was announced, the “agreement should provide a significant boost to UK and European innovative businesses at a time when new sources of economic growth are important.” US Ambassador to the EU William Kennard echoed this statement, saying that the EU’s new unitary patent system “is of particular significance at a time when innovation is the prime driver of economic growth and long-term job creation.”

The new EU unitary patent and unified patent court will reduce costs, delays, and uncertainty, and represents a major milestone in the story of international IP protection.