Patent

After more than four decades of negotiation, impasse and posturing, 25 member states agree to create a unitary patent. MEPs who voted for the move promise simplification, lower costs and time-saving for hard-pressed SMEs.

MEPs reached a tentative compromise with Member States this week on the Single Patent. All that’s needed now is for EU ministers give the proposal a nod in December and for the European Parliament to vote yes too

As lawmakers in Brussels frantically look for ways to break the stalemate over the Single EU patent, Science|Business takes a closer look at the political and legal dispute

Top EU businesses expect their investments in research and development to grow by an average of 4 percent annually over the period 2012 to 2014

Recent progress has been encouraging, but MEPs’ decision not to vote on the single European Patent leaves innovative businesses without the historic breakthrough they so desperately need, says Jonathan Zuck

It should help boost innovation: “Devil is in the details,” experts say

MEPs threaten to take Council to EU Court of Justice after member states limit involvement of EU legal system in patent litigation without consulting Parliament

Forty years’ horse trading has ended in a eurofudge, as EU heads of state have agreed on a compromise proposal to split the court that will litigate the EU Unitary Patent between Paris, Munich and London

New laws on both sides of the Atlantic are changing the way patents will work. A Science|Business conference in Washington May 7 examined how this historic convergence could help inventors - and the economy