Improving efficiency in the ‘market for innovation’

The EU is considering two major policy initiatives to improve patent enforcement – patent litigation insurance and establishment of a centralised patent court. This column studies the US experience in centralising patent decisions and concludes that a European Patent Court would likely bring clarity to patent rights, making the market for innovation more efficient.

VoxEU.org is a policy portal set up by the Centre for Economic Policy Research in conjunction with a consortium of national sites, including the Italian site LaVoce, the French site Telos and the Spanish site Sociedad Abierta. Vox aims to promote research-based policy analysis and commentary by leading scholars. The intended audience is economists in governments, international organisations, academia and the private sector as well as journalists specializing in economics, finance and business.

• Primary Source

EPO: Patents: Law: Legislative initiatives: EPLA http://www.epo.org/patents/law/legislative-initiatives/epla.html

EPO: Topics: Patenting issues: EPLA http://www.epo.org/topics/issues/eply.html

Wikipedia: European Patent Litigation Agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Patent_Litigation_Agreement

---