Industrial property: Community patent

In public deliberation, and at the request of the Netherlands and Swedish delegations, the Commission expressed its opinion on the possibility of initiating an enhanced cooperation procedure on a future EU patent system.

The request follows a letter sent by several Member States asking the Commission to consider the feasibility of proposing enhanced cooperation in this area, should it receive a request to propose such cooperation in the near future.

Several Member States expressed views on this issue and the Council legal service provided an explanation of the compatibility of this kind of enhanced cooperation with the EU treaty, as well as the procedural steps to initiate it.

The Presidency announced that this topic would be added to the agenda for the next Competitiveness Council meeting scheduled for 10 December 2010.