To create unitary patent protection

Europees Parlement: Single patent co-operation plan gets committee go-ahead. Plans to use the enhanced co-operation procedure to create a unitary patent system in the EU, as requested by 12 Member States last year, were approved by the Legal Affairs Committee on 27 January.

If Parliament as a whole and Council authorise this use of enhanced co-operation, the Commission will have to table two legislative proposals - one on the language regime and the other establishing the single patent. The Legal Affairs Committee gave its consent to the use of enhanced cooperation to create unitary patent protection in a report by Klaus-Heiner Lehne (EPP-ED, DE), which was approved by a large majority.

The request by 12 Member States (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK), to start an enhanced co-operation procedure came in December 2010, after the Member States concluded that no EU-wide agreement on the issue could be found within the Council. Other Member States may join the enhanced co-operation at any time.

The European Parliament as a whole will vote on the proposal during the February Strasbourg session and the Competitiveness Council will examine it on 10 March.

If the enhanced co-operation is authorised by both Parliament and the Council, the Commission will present two proposals: one on the language regime (consultation procedure) and the other establishing the single patent (co-decision procedure). The Legal Affairs Committee is calling on the Council to use co-decision procedure for both proposals.

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