Brussels, 17/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the meeting of the European Patent Office (EPO) Select Committee on Tuesday 15 December, the 26 member states participating in the European unitary patent formalised a series of agreements relating to implementation of the single patent, budgetary and financial rules, the level of renewal fees and how revenue is to be distributed between the member states and the EPO. With the adoption of these agreements a comprehensive and complete secondary legal framework has been put in place.
In mid-November, the unitary patent took a further step forward with agreement being reached on a distribution key for revenue from annual taxes. Under this agreement, 50% of the revenue will go to the EPO and the remainder will be distributed among the member states in line with their GDP and the number of patent applications (see EUROPE 11435).
One of the prerequisites for the launch of the unitary patent system is a unitary patent court. Once 13 member states, necessarily including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, have ratified the treaty establishing this court the system will come into effect. To date, eight member states, including France, have ratified the treaty. The United Kingdom is expected to ratify next year. Germany is likely to be the last to do so (see EUROPE 11401). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)