While Europe can be viewed as one single big market the size of the U.S.A., it remains in some aspects and particularly for patent rights a patchwork of individual countries and protecting inventions in the whole European market is known to be very expensive, despite the European patent system.  European small business organizations in the field of healthcare, biotechnologies and chemistry cannot drive their development solely based on their national market. Even Gremany and France, which are quite sizeable markets, will not suffice to support any return commensurate with the R&D effort necessary to develop a new invention in these fields. At their origin, companies need to think globally with two main markets at first, their national market and the U.S.A., and then later on the remaining of Europe. This presentation will discuss how the patent system works in Europe and will provide examples of successful IP policies for small business in the fields of pharmaceuticals, diagnostic medicine, medical devices, and biobased chemistry, with a particular focus on startup companies.

Managing a financially sustainable IP policy in view of the costs of European patent protection

245th National Meeting (2013)

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