EU renews drive for common patent system
Baku, October 12 (AZERTAC). EU ministers are struggling to get unanimous agreement on an EU-wide patent system aimed at drastically cutting costs for European businesses.
The EU`s Competitiveness Council is considering a European Commission proposal to simplify patents in the EU.
But some member states are unhappy about the plan to have three official languages for registering patents - English, French and German.
Translation costs make patents in the EU much more expensive than US patents.
The Commission says a single EU patent system would reduce translation costs from the current 14,000 euros (£12,226) on average to just 680 euros per patent.
It costs firms an average of 20,000 euros to get a patent validated in 13 EU member states - more than 10 times the cost of a US patent, the Commission says.
Other news in this section
