The EU-parliament have been guarding its legislative powers, trying to keep the new "Unitary Patents Courts" within the EU legal framework unlike how its pushed as a separate cross state agreement by the EU-Council. A leaked report from the EU-parliament meeting this Monday, shows a rush to sign the Council "compromise" version anyway. This is not just a threat to innovation or bad for business, its also a problem for the EU project and democracy as it creates a self serving legal authority outside legislative control. The legality of this approach has been sharply questioned by Max Planck Institut and the EU court of justice among others.
EU-patents has been on the agenda for more than 35 years. But patents are not just about innovation, they are also exclusions, borders, national protection and have been difficult for nations to agree on. The problems also relate to the current, non EU, European Patents Office, that has extended its reach issuing far broader patents than originally intended in its convention, super-seeding national courts confusing harmonization of whats patent-able with more patents and income. In this scenario, creating a new Court to enforce the same type of EU-wide patents is a big mistake for innovation and growth.
Update on the leaked proposal:
