Viewpoint

While Brexit has put hopes for the unified European patent on hold, a new US pilot exemplifies how a single efficient patenting system can be used to underpin and promote innovation

UK withdrawal from the EU will fundamentally change the basic scope of the Unitary Patent and the associated Unitary Patent Court. This could permanently jeopardise the launch of the European single patent

Uncertainty reigns in British science, not least because the UK gets more out in R&D funding than it contributes. Nicola Blackwood MP, chair of parliament’s Science and Technology Committee, has written to Chancellor George Osborne demanding answers

Focus on bridge-building, open the science cloud, clarify the rules – these are among the steps that the EU should now take to turn the UK’s departure from disaster to opportunity

Spin-outs from the university have made major contributions to computing and biotech, but in the past most were sold and the technology moved out. Now start-ups have become ‘sticky’ and multinational acquirers are staying put

A UK programme set up in 2013 has already produced four high tech companies with valuations of €1B. The European Commission should set up a similar scheme, says the European Digital Forum

The European Innovation Council should not obsess over Europe’s lack of billion-dollar companies. Instead, it should stick to getting small details right, says entrepreneur Piotr Jakubowiczi

With resources and services stretched to their limits, future cities must be smarter. Cambridge professors Doug Crawford-Brown, Robert Mair and Koen Steemers describe the innovations in technology and governance needed to keep the megacity functional

The EU still has not learned basic lessons about innovation from its US competition. Professors Gunnar Landgren and Ramon Wyss, both instrumental in the formation of EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities, explain how to remedy the European innovation paradox

The world needs a global plan to tackle antimicrobial resistance. Alongside a $2B fund to jump-start innovation there should be a $1B reward for companies when a new antibiotic is launched, says Jim O’Neill, chair of the review