EGA Press Release

Wednesday, 8 April 2009

EGA SEEKS BALANCE BETWEEN PATENTS AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST
IN PROPOSED EU “UNIFIED PATENT LITIGATION SYSTEM”

The EGA welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to create a Unified Patent Litigation System, while recommending changes to create safeguards that will ensure a fairer balance between patent holders and the public interest.

The European Commission recognises in the proposal that the differing national litigation systems across the EU leads to forum shopping, diverging—even contradictory—judgments, and high costs from multiple litigation. The Commission’s plan aims to simplify the current system and eliminate many unnecessary legal expenses by creating a “Unified Patent Litigation System” and a specialised court with jurisdiction both for existing European patents and for future Community patents.

These objectives should be welcome by all sectors of European industry as the proposal represents a big boost for EU competitiveness. However, Greg Perry, director general of EGA, insists that an even more robust proposal is needed to ensure that the public interest is taken fully into consideration. “This is particularly crucial”, he said, “for sustainable healthcare in the EU and to maintain the contribution of generic medicines to patient care. Any decision regarding a patent covering a medicine will have great financial impact, not only on the companies involved, but also on consumers and on Member State healthcare systems.”

In terms of pharmaceutical products, the current complex, uncertain and expensive patent framework leads to unneeded delays in patient access to generic medicines and increases their cost. Lower-priced generic medicines currently account for nearly 50% of all medicines dispensed in the European Union whilst accounting for less than 18% of pharmaceutical expenditure. “Generic medicines are essential for ensuring the sustainability of our healthcare systems and creating competition and innovation in our pharmaceutical sector”, Mr Perry said.

Pointing to conclusions from the EGA’s recent position paper on the proposed European Union Patent Court, Mr Perry added that a number of issues in the current draft need further consideration to ensure the full benefit of a unified patent litigation system and outlined areas that the Commission should address further. These include:

• employing only experienced and technically qualified judges on local and regional panels;
• naming only patent judges to the Advisory Committee to ensure this body’s neutrality and independence;
• allowing the court to deal with issues of unfair competition when introduced as a defence in patent infringement cases;
• having judges take into account the interests of affected third parties—such as Member State administrations;
• requiring security bonds to dissuade unfounded preliminary injunctions;
• deleting the proposed opt-out provision to ensure a common system for all patents.

Further Information: EGA position paper on the European Patent Court

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