Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of a seminar on European patent system jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Andhra Pradesh Technology Development and Promotion Centre (APTDC) here on Monday, he said the unitary method would facilitate a single patent for about 25 countries covered by European patents.

At present, after obtaining a patent in a region, one has to pay the fees/or maintenance costs for 20 years in each of these countries individually. This approximately costs over €30,000 (about Rs 26 lakh). The unitary method would eliminate this problem, he added.

EPO had received 257,744 patent applications in 2012, of which 65,687 patents had already been granted. While the contracting states from Europe contributed 50 per cent to the total patent submissions last year, the US accounted for 25 per cent.

Earlier, while speaking on advantages of patents system to the participants, Tzschoppe said by making a detailed description of the innovation available to everyone after 18 months of filing, patent system benefits the public.

It would also benefit the owner by preventing third parties from exploiting the invention for commercial purpose without authorization for a maximum period of 20 years, he added.

Arvind Chopra, Head, IPR, European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC), said most of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country are not making use of intellectual property rights. The insufficient knowledge of intellectual property was a key barrier for SMEs.