The question appeared crucial during the development of vaccines against Covid, it is a permanent question for researchers, inventors and business innovators: how to protect the innovative fruit of their research? In “Spring 2023”, a European unitary patent will validate the intellectual property of a discovery in 17 European countries at once, ensure this Tuesday the European patent authorities.
Ten years after being voted on at European level, this new “unified patent court”, which will rule on the infringement and validity of patents in Europe, will open its doors on April 1, 2023, the date on which it will be able to receive files.
While the European Union (EU) is trying to respond to the crisis by asserting its industrial sovereignty, the creation of a unitary European patent, with a single patent jurisdiction, is likely to simplify procedures for businesses and to reduce their costs. Currently for a patent to be valid in one of the 38 States of the European Patent Office (EPO) other than the country of origin of the invention, it must be validated in each country where you want the invention to be protected. , i.e. 38 validations in total, and a multiplication of procedures and costs.
With a unitary patent, a company will have its innovations protected in 17 Member States at once (the list can be found here), 25 eventually, or even all Member States. Spain and Croatia have refused to join for the time being. Poland has accepted but has not yet ratified the agreement.
Companies protecting their intellectual property, the engine of the European economy
In 2022, 82 million European jobs are directly linked to the fact that their company makes intensive use of intellectual property, i.e. nearly 30% of total jobs, which represent 47.1% of the GDP of the 27 member countries of the EU and 80.1% of their exports, according to the study.
Trademarks, designs and patented models, plant variety certificates, copyrights or geographical indications… In 2013, the economic impact of sectors using intellectual property tools represented only 28.6% of jobs, 46, 2% of GDP and 76.7% of EU exports, according to a study by the EPO and the EU Intellectual Property Office, published on Tuesday morning.
For France alone, industries with intensive use of intellectual property rights (IPR) represented a quarter of jobs between 2016 and 2019 and almost half of GDP (46.9%). And in these companies anxious to protect their progress, the average weekly salary is also higher: 840 euros on average in Europe against 597 for structures that do not use it.