High European patent fees will hit start-ups - EU industry chief

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, May 24 (Reuters) - Excessively high patent fees could damage European business, the EU industry chief has warned, saying the focus should be on helping start-ups and small companies rather than raking in revenues to top up budgets.

The comments by European Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska came after EU officials said most member states were poised to recommend fees significantly higher than those proposed by the European Patent Office.

After decades of argument, the 28-country bloc agreed on a single European patent three years ago to replace a fragmented system where an inventor would have to pay as much as 35,000 euros ($39,000) to protect an idea in individual EU countries.

The second leg of the process involves member states agreeing on appropriate pan-EU fees, half of which will go to national patent offices and the other half to the European Patent Office. Patents give exclusive rights or protection to inventions.

"An important factor of the EU's competitiveness is at stake and it is the political responsibility of us all to ensure that the right decision is taken," Bienkowska wrote in a letter sent this week to British Intellectual Property Minister Lucy Neville Rolfe and other EU ministers.

"Our overarching objective should therefore consist of ensuring the adoption of renewal fees that offer the best possible access of small entities, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups in particular, to unitary patent protection," she said in the letter seen by Reuters.

Bienkowska said patent fees should be set at a level close to the sum of the actual fees paid in France, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands, the four countries with the highest number of patent applications in the bloc.

European Patent Office (EPO) spokesman Rainer Osterwalder said the commissioner's comments were made in a letter to member states that are meeting in the coming week.

"Commissioner Bienkowska and EPO President Battistelli met in Brussels on 7 May and shared common views on the need for a business-friendly solution," he added.

A committee of 25 EU countries will meet on May 26-27 to discuss the issue. The Commission will also raise the subject at a meeting of EU ministers on May 28. A final decision is due next month.

The Commission said Dutch company Philips (Amsterdam: PHIA.AS - news) , Swedish engineering group Alfa Laval (Stockholm: ALFA.ST - news) , Finnish mobile equipment maker Nokia (Swiss: NOK1V.SW - news) , Danish energy business Danfoss and chipmaker NXP Semiconductors NV (NasdaqGS: NXPI - news) had also sent letters to the committee expressing their concerns.

($1 = 0.8935 euros) (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Pravin Char)