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Enhanced cooperation, Internal Market, Unitary patent protection
Abstract:
The Court of Justice is expected to decide soon on the validity of the Council
decision of March 2011 authorising enhanced cooperation in the area of unitary
patent protection. Should the Court invalidate the decision, the decisions of the Parliament
and of the Council of last December, which implement enhanced cooperation
by the means of two regulations introducing a European patent with unitary effect and
providing for a specific language regime will lack a legal basis. The paper examines
the new legal issues arising with regard to the authorisation and the implementation
of enhanced cooperation. It concludes that, in a long term perspective, repealing the
Council’s decision will best serve maintaining the legitimacy both of reinforced integration
through enhanced cooperation within the European Union and of regulating
dynamic competition within the Internal Market by unified patent protection.
