An International Perspective I: A View from the United States
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Description
To students of US patent law and procedure, the decision by members of the European Union to adopt a unitary patent system (UPS) is intriguing. Because the United States operates under an analogous regime, Americans are arguably in a better position than are Europeans to predict how the new system will work out. In this essay, I start by describing how the procedures used in the United States to protect inventions and to decide patent cases developed, detailing the many ways in which the concerns now expressed in Europe echo the reactions Americans voiced as the US system unfolded. I then summarize the US experience and ask whether drafters of the UPS have managed to capture its benefits and avoid its pitfalls. I suggest that the Europeans have in some ways perfected what I have called the American experiment. At the same time, however, the EU may have made itself vulnerable to many of the problems with which the United States is currently coping. But I conclude that even if neither regime is perfect, together the two systems—along with similar developments elsewhere—can work in concert to improve both patent law and its global administration.
Source Publication
The Unitary EU Patent System
Source Editors/Authors
Justine Pila, Christopher Wadlow
Publication Date
2014
Recommended Citation
Dreyfuss, Rochelle C., "An International Perspective I: A View from the United States" (2014). Faculty Chapters. 1177.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1177
