Search
EC announcement heats up SME debate

EC announcement heats up SME debate

Days after the US House of Representatives became a centre of criticism over the effects of US patent law on small businesses (click here for IP Review Online’s coverage), a similar scenario has arisen in the heart of European legislature. A 4 April announcement by EU Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, that he would once again be seeking to standardise EU patent law has created a flurry of controversy, with two major special interest groups failing to agree on the matter.

Luc Hendrickx, director of enterprise policy at the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (UEAPME), said: ‘The unresolved community patent leaves European SMEs without one of the essential instruments to innovation.’

However, Pieter Hintjens – president of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) – gave a stern warning: ‘The EU is following the US down the risky path of a central patent jurisdiction, when this experiment has failed miserably in the US. The Commission insults the many SMEs who participated in its Patent Consultation by claiming that they are uninformed when they say the patent system does not fit in their business model.

While Hendrickx took issue with the single law’s requirement for patents to be translated into an agreed language – admitting it would ‘further raise the administrative costs, which are often unbearable for SMEs’ – Hintjens attacked the EU patent at its very root.

‘Reducing financial burdens on venture capitalists, like in the US, would be much more fruitful than proposing to throw even more money at “re-educating” companies to agree with the Commission's patent obsession,’ he said. He added that the Commission’s focus on patent litigation costs was ‘like putting lipstick on a pig. Cheaper litigation by itself would merely result in a US-like litigation explosion, which is devastating for small companies.’

Add to RSS: add to rss

Add this page to:

User Comments

Post a comment