Plomer, A. (2015) A Unitary Patent for a (dis)United Europe and the Long Shadow of History. IIC International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law, 46 (5). pp. 508-533. ISSN 1522-2578
Abstract
This article retraces the history of patent harmonization in Europe and reviews the European Union “patent package” and its approval by the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the light of this history. The article draws on archived and hitherto unused confidential documents to retrace the key institutions and players in the origins and evolution of the European patent unification movement. The study reveals that the EU project was originally led by the Council of Europe and analyzes the reasons why the EU has struggled to develop a coherent model of integration to facilitate realization of the internal market ever since. The historical legacy suggests that a critical turning point was the creation of the European Patent Organization as the leading engine of patent policy in Europe, an autonomous organization which is not subject to judicial oversight by the EU court or meaningful political scrutiny by the European Union and its members. The article concludes with a case study illustrating how the latent difficulties over the relationship between different European institutions and the jurisdiction of European tribunals and courts are manifested today in the unitary patent and the unified patent court.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich 2015. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Unitary patent; Unified Patent Court; European patent harmonization; Regulation (EU) No 1257/2012; TFEU Art. 18; TFEU Art. 291; European Patent Organization |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of Law (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 Nov 2015 16:10 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 21:54 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40319-015-0356-6 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s40319-015-0356-6 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:89385 |