EU ministers have agreed to introduce a community-wide patent by 2010, ending 30 years of squabbling over the issue. Under the agreement, the patent would be issued in English, French and German and an EU patent court in Luxembourg would adjudicate any disputes.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, welcomed the agreement as an important step towards making Europe more competitive and she predicted that it would provide a boost to research and development in Ireland.
"This is important also for Ireland's R&D community and for business investing in intellectual property," she said.
Business leaders have long complained that it costs five times as much to register a patent in Europe as in the US or Japan. The Internal Market Commissioner, Mr Frits Bolkestein, said yesterday that legal and translation costs can mean that registering an invention in just eight EU member-states can cost up to €50,000.
"The community patent, on the basis of the current compromise, would halve these costs to some €25,000 for 25 member-states - still more costly than the US or Japan but very much better than the current situation," he said.
Disputes over such issues as which languages should be used have prevented EU governments from agreeing the terms of a community patent until now.
Yesterday's agreement follows Germany's abandonment of its opposition to a central patent court on condition that countries would be given a transitional period - until 2010 - to phase out national patent courts.
Mr Bolkestein said the decision to establish a single patent court offered important protection to companies.
"This ensures that companies using the Community Patent would not have to run the risk of potential legal action before national courts in each and every member-state, with all the legal uncertainty, inconvenience and cost that would have entailed," he said.
The member-states will have to agree technical rules for the new patent before it becomes law, probably next year.
Businesses will welcome the agreement but some complained that the system approved yesterday remains too complicated.
Under the agreement, only the part of the patent document that describes use and function will be translated into all EU official languages and the rest of the document will be translated in English, German or French.
