Giving Teeth to European Patent Reform: Overcoming Recent Legal Challenges

Europe must transition from a national, splintered patent enforcement regime to a transnational, uniform patent enforcement regime to protect the value of European patents in the global economy. Patent reform in Europe is ongoing and supported by most member states of the European Union (EU), but objections by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the European Parliament, Spain, and Italy have stymied progress. This Comment proposes modifications to patent reform in an effort to overcome these myriad objections and to enable the realization of meaningful European patent reform.