Law departments may enjoy some budget relief if European patent costs drop dramatically

The Economist, March 19, 2011 at 69, writes that the European Union has taken a long step toward the creation of a single European patent. If approved by the European Parliament, the new regime would dispense with separate validation in different nations (with attendant translation and other costs) and that “will slash the cost of a European patent to just a few times the cost in America; it now costs about 15 times as much.”

Law departments and their patent lawyers around the world will rejoice.