1973 Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Switzerland and Turkey, the EU member states that signed the Munich Agreement, established the "European Patent Office" in Munich, Germany on 1977. The agency has 5,000 staff members and receives about one million patent registration applications every year, which is very inefficient. Because it does not belong to the European body, patent offices in European countries still accept patent registration, and it is difficult for inventions registered in the European Patent Office to be recognized by all EU countries. In addition, the translation and registration of patents are expensive, nearly 30,000 euros, and the validity period is short, which is not conducive to the protection of intellectual property rights, and also limits scientific and technological innovation and the development of the European internal market. Therefore, countries have been calling for the reform of the current system to achieve mutual recognition of patents within the EU.
1In February 1999, the European Commission issued a Green Paper, proposing to reform the patent system. In March 2000, the Lisbon Summit of the European Union proposed to reform the European patent registration system. However, there are great differences among member countries in reducing the cost of registration and translation and mutual judicial recognition of European patents, which hinder the progress of reform.
On April 10, 2002, the European Parliament passed the proposal of the European Commission to promote this reform. On March 3 this year, at the Council of the European Union, countries reached a consensus on issues such as law, translation, fees, the role of patent offices in various countries and cost sharing, and authorized Italy to complete the legislation of "patent identity" during its rotating presidency in the second half of this year. The Council of the European Union will be responsible for coordinating the patent departments of various countries, and on the basis of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, a "* * * patent court body" will be established, starting from 20 10, to hear patent disputes. Patent registration is still the responsibility of the European Patent Office. Patent applications must be in one of three working languages: English, French and German. The patent office will translate the documents into Italian and Spanish, and then translate them into the languages of EU countries after registration. In principle, the required expenses should be shared by the national patent offices and the European Patent Office.
The biggest feature of EU patent system reform is that it simplifies the registration application, reduces the economic burden of registrants, centralizes the power of intellectual property protection, realizes the integration of patent system, and combines "patent of the same body" with the existing patent system of Munich Agreement. The EU will formally join the Munich Agreement, and the European Patent Office will issue "* * * identical patents" according to the conditions stipulated in the Agreement. This patent will be universally recognized by all EU member states. Patents can only be issued, transferred or cancelled in the name of the European Union. Where the patentee is a state employee or a company employee, the ownership of the patent right shall be determined by the laws of the unit or country where it belongs. Without the consent of the inventor, it is forbidden to publish, develop, manufacture, sell to the market, export and use indirectly.
The new EU patent right is valid for 20 years. The protection of patent rights does not involve inventions for private and non-commercial purposes, nor does it include products registered in member States and listed on the EU internal market with the consent of the inventors. The EU has the right to restrict the production of a patent in a "special period" or prohibit its promotion and use when it thinks it hinders fair competition in the market. The patent owner has to pay a fee to keep the patent valid every year. For intellectual property disputes, especially when the rights and interests of inventors and the European Union are infringed by counterfeiting, the * * * patent court will try and judge and punish them according to the Munich Agreement. The new patent system will effectively protect the intellectual property rights of the EU and crack down on the infringement of EU patents more severely.