New Harmonised EU Patent Rules Are Criticised by the Research and Development Organisations

The European Commission (EC) has recently proposed new regulations to strengthen the protection of IP in Europe. With these new regulations on standard essential patents, compulsory licensing of patents in crisis situations, and the revision of the legislation on supplementary protection certificates, the Commission intends to create a more transparent, effective, and futureproof intellectual property IP framework.

However, European industrial research and development (R&D) organisations have criticised the European Commission's new patent regulations. According to a coalition of R&D-intensive organisations whose innovations are protected by patents, the rule changes would undermine Europe’s ability to achieve its strategic objectives for innovation, standards, small and medium sized companies (SMEs) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

The organisations opposed, claim that the revisions would hand over the management of patents necessary for the adoption of industry standards to an entity with no prior knowledge of standards or patents.