In just two years, the European Patent Office (EPO) has received some 60,000 unitary patent applications (see EUROPE 13192/37). A real success, according to the Office’s president, António Campinos, who presented the EPO’s successes, but also the challenges it faces, to members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) on Monday 12 May.
While the unitary patent is widely used, it would be even more so if all EU Member States took part, insisted Mr Campinos. Only 18 of them currently recognise it. “We are trying to convince Member States to join the unitary patent, but I would like to ask the European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council to play a greater role in this effort, because it is one thing to adopt legislation and another to ensure that it is applied by as many Member States as possible”, he insisted.
The use of unitary patents considerably reduces administrative costs for applicants. This is why greater coverage would primarily benefit SMEs, which account for only 20% of patents filed with the EPO, explained the president of the Office when asked about the low participation of small businesses by German MEPs René Repasi (S&D) and Angelika Niebler (EPP).
Standard essential patents. While the regulation on standard essential patents (SEPs) could be abandoned (see EUROPE 13626/4), the EPO’s president did not explicitly state that he was in favour of resuming work on it, but spoke in favour of greater transparency in the granting of SEPs, which was the objective of the regulation proposed by the European Commission in 2023.
Supplementary protection certificates. On the other hand, he spoke more clearly about the work on supplementary protection certificates (SPCs), another text in the 2023 ‘patents’ package. SPCs make it possible to extend the validity period of certain patents, and the European Commission has proposed simplifying and rationalising their use, in addition to giving them European value.
“The industry needs them. I think we should move forward in this area, because investment in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors is falling”, insisted António Campinos. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)