COMMUNITY PATENT

BY KEITH NUTHALLTHE EUROPEAN Union's (EU) Council of Ministers is under pressure to agree proposals to set up a so-called 'Community Patent' that would give inventors the option of obtaining a single patent legally valid throughout the EU. Germany and Portugal are objecting to wording in the proposed texts and have succeeded in blocking the initiative, angering EU internal market commissioner Frits Bolkestein who said the Commission "cannot accept that the proposed central and specialised EU jurisdiction should be watered down."Germany cited problems with the ...


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