BIS Select Committee Inquiry Hargreaves Review of IP – PraxisUnico Response

PraxisUnico supports the general direction of travel as indicated in the Hargreaves Report and in the Governments response.

We agree that:

a. change is needed;

b. International cooperation and work sharing is essential, particularly across the EU. We agree with working collaboratively with countries within the EU even where a single agreement cannot be reached with all member states (following the recent decisions on EU wide patents);

c. The IPO should have a stronger mandate;

d. A single EU patent is essential and must be pursued vigorously;

We disagree that patent fee costs are a suitable control mechanism for patent thickets. The costs incurred in securing professional advice relating to patenting far outweigh the patent filing costs.